Twilight Tale
by Laina Inverse
Summary: When twilight descended upon Hyrule, the guardian of the land was caught unawares. Though Raiha escaped capture, grave injury caused her to be unable to reach the Hero. Teaming up with an imp to save Hyrule and the Hero was certainly not part of the plan, but any port in a storm. Even if that port brings about more painful memories than it salves. (Twilight Princess rewrite)
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Simple questions

"...Nayru have mercy," Raiha sighed, feeling a ping of magic skitter across her hips. "If it's Oron or Casren, I swear..."

The summons crystal was only glowing in the one color this time, at least, and Raiha grabbed the perambulator that held the twins, pulling it behind her as she headed out of her office. Honestly, while she appreciated making the crystals, she was _right there_ in her office.

Sometimes the solicitous nature of people annoyed her to no end. But since they no doubt had been attempting to not disturb the twins—only three months old and still prone to waking and sleeping on their own schedule—she tried not to let it get to her. They _had_ only just fallen back asleep again. Oh, she could have left them to a nanny in the nursery, but that had never _felt_ right to her.

Fortunately, no one with any sense had tried to argue that she shouldn't be bringing Bel and Naila with her everywhere.

There was a small crowd about midway through the shelves, though when they saw her coming, they parted quickly; it wasn't, fortunately, either of her two Academia problem children. Nor was is Sheik, for which she allowed herself a faintly relieved breath. Instead, it was two of the other new librarians in training, Kamil Oroson and Tolyn Cooper. Toyln was on the bottom, and both looked rather dazed, and were surrounded by books.

"So... what happened?" Raiha asked, raising an eyebrow at the sight.

"As far as anyone can tell, Scholar Oroson was putting books up on that shelf, and slipped," Muriel said, sighing a little. "Scholar Cooper... broke his fall."

Raiha stifled a smirk; it wouldn't do to laugh at her librarians in training, even if she was amused.

"All right. Let's see now..."

Leaving the pram, she crouched down by the two groaning scholars and held out a hand that glimmered faintly with golden light. After a moment she leaned back a little.

"We need a stretcher for Oroson. His ankle's broken. If I had to guess, he caught it briefly in the ladder on his way down. Cooper looks like he's fine, just dazed and with a few bruises from the books."

"Broken?" Kamil grimaced a little.

"Indeed. That will teach you care on the ladder," she said, raising an eyebrow.

Kamil had the decency to flush; in the three months he'd been learning the library, she had gotten _many_ reports of his reckless behavior on the ladders. She had warned him that it would hurt eventually. Hopefully this _would_ teach him some caution.

"Can't you... heal it?" he asked plaintively.

"I could, if I desired," she said. A sharp smile crossed her face. "But I would have to be convinced that you'd learned your lesson. We don't _play_ on these ladders, Scholar Oroson. The library may not be as fragile as the archives, but it is a place of learning, where others like yourself expect things to be where they belong. Understand?"

"...Yes, Lady Raiha."

"Then I will heal the injury this once. If you gain another from playing about on the ladders, you will have to suffer the price... now do shift off poor Scholar Cooper. He can't breathe with you sprawled on him like that."

Kamil hastily moved himself off his fellow librarian-in-training, muttering a sheepish apology. Tolyn, for his part, sat up woozily, and waved a hand slightly. Raiha smiled faintly, this time in pleasure; when they had all started three months ago, the scholars of the Academia and the Collegia hadn't mingled easily or well. After being rid of two of the Collegia fools—keeping the Academia fools only because they seemed to have learned to keep their egos to a minimum around her—the lines between scholars had blurred some as her archivists-in-training had bonded over being taught how to clean up the overwrought archives, and her librarians-in-training had learned just how _many_ books they were in charge of helping the regular populace find.

As a result, most of them had become quite friendly with one another.

She flexed her fingers lightly, humming the Song of Healing quietly; it wasn't a requirement, but the music had always made the magic go smoother. In a few short minutes, Kamil's ankle was back to normal,and Tolyn's head no longer ached, his breath returning to an even keel.

"All right, show's over, back to work," Muriel informed everyone, shooing them on their way as Kamil hopped to his feet and started helping pick up the books he'd made Tolyn drop.

"Lady Raiha?"

Raiha glanced up, and felt warmth flicker through her; Sheik stood there, not _quite_ offering a hand up from her crouch, but being in close proximity anyways. Just in case. Then her eyes dropped to the books he held in his arms, and one eyebrow went up. She recognized the feel of her magic well enough, and those looked like... yes, she _had_ given him permission to read those, hadn't she?

"You've finished?"

"Well... not precisely, my lady," he admitted, shuffling slightly; a movement indicating his discomfort. "I finished the ones Lord Ganon translated, but..."

She took a closer look at the books as she straightened from her crouch, then sighed.

"Ah. _Those_ journals. The Twilight Debacle."

She couldn't keep the irritation out of her voice, but tried to soften it enough so that he didn't think she was mad at _him_. He was still new to the polyamorous grouping that was herself, Zelda, Link, and Ganon, and very unsure of how he'd fit into all of it. But he was trying, both to understand, and to fit in.

"Did... were these ones..?"

She waved a hand lightly, almost dismissively.

"No, it's fine. You can get Ganon to read them to you, if you'd like. Just... do understand that I won't be present for the readings."

Hesitantly, he touched her shoulder lightly. After a moment, she just sighed.

"I live life as it comes," she said after a long minute, feeling, for a moment, far older than she looked. Feeling the age that she _was_ , even if she couldn't really put a number to that. "If I spent too much time in the past, it would only hurt me. So I try to not think about times long gone. Not unless I have to."

"Aren't you always the one who says we have to remember the past to plot the course of the future?"

She snorted a little.

"When I need to remember, I can. But for my life as it is now, it... hurts much less if I only take what I have, and concentrate on that. So."

He looked down at her, his visible eye showing uncertainty, concern. Raiha made herself smile, even knowing it was a dry smile, and patted his arm lightly.

"Truly, it's fine if you want to read them. The history books gloss over that period now; not enough people understood what happened, how, or why. In truth..." she sighed a little. "In truth, I foolishly set the wheels in motion for what happened long ago. And I suppose it would not hurt you lot to know that."

"As long as we don't involve you?"

"I would try to edit, and that wouldn't... help. So."

After a moment he nodded, cautiously hugging the books to his chest.

"Now, as Muriel _did_ say, it's time to get back to work; I'll be in my office if anyone needs me. And... next time? Someone just knock."

He chuckled a little, and she smiled wryly, then turned back to the pram and her babies.

* * *

The two journals rested on the low table, then the four young adults looked at them in a mix of curiosity and trepidation.

"I wanted to ask way back when we finished reading the first one," Ganon said after a minute. "But now I'm not so sure..."

Link just nodded a little, his expression uneasy.

"I did consider asking myself," Zelda admitted. "She is right, there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the Twilight Era,as it came to be called. Many people who were called upon for testimony could give no coherent accounts for the start of it, and once the twilight was dismissed, only my ancestor knew what happened next. But... she kept no record of it."

"Makes you wonder if Rai asked her not to," Link put in after a moment.

"What purpose would that serve?" Ganon protested.

"Keeping history unmuddled in her own mind, perhaps," Sheik said after a long,thoughtful minute. "At least until she could put it down for herself..."

"Whatever the reason, we have here, a chance to read the firsthand account of someone that went through it," Zelda replied. "And her permission to do so. Ganon, are both books... words?"

The former Gerudo king picked up the top journal and rifled quickly through it, then the second.

"Some pictures," he said after a moment,feeling a little like his head had been hit by a wooden sword. Trying not to get good looks didn't stop the memories that came careening in with no warning at even the glimpses. "But mostly words."

Zelda glanced at the three young men, lips pursed.

"Why don't we let it sit for a few days," she suggested. "Not that I disbelieve you, Sheik, the only way we can hear these stories is if Ganon reads them, but I would... feel more at ease if we each got our own permission."

Link nodded quickly; he hadn't been comfortable with hearing the Ocarina Tale, nor the image book that had come with it. He,personally, would feel much better if he got to ask Raiha first. And, judging by the concern in Zelda's eyes, and the wary way Ganon held himself, he wasn't the only one who felt cautious about such a thing.

Sheik nodded a little in understanding.

"I can wait," he said. "In truth, with my punishment now complete, I was hoping to return to my archivist training, and if Adriane is any indication, it is very wearying. But... if she does...?"

"We'll let you know," Ganon said, though his tone was just a touch grumpy; of all of them, he was the least pleased about Sheik upsetting Raiha's balanced life. While he had accepted that she wanted the Sheikah male there, he still wasn't entirely _happy_ about it.

Zelda's and Link's nods were more comforting, and Sheik stood, bowing politely.

"In that case, I will see you all later."

"Don't forget training tomorrow morning," Ganon said, a smirk crossing his face. "Raiha might be the one who can teach you Sheikah skills, but you're not going to get better by hauling books around."

Link reached over and jabbed Ganon's shoulder lightly.

"Be nice," the blond Hero said firmly. "You know she'll smack you if she hears about you being too rough."

Sheik stifled a smile; Link had seemed to take to him right away, which had been a comfort. It helped even more when he took Sheik's side over Ganon's, regardless of their relationship.

Before Sheik could get more than a few steps out the door, Link had caught up to him, leaving Zelda and Ganon behind.

"Have you asked Rai to take a chance at fix your eye?" he asked as Sheik glanced over curiously.

"Ah... no," Sheik admitted after a moment. "The twins seem to keep her quite busy, and... well, I am used to this. Suddenly having full sight again would be a bit... strange. Difficult, I suppose. Do you think Lady Raiha will give everyone permission?"

"Probably..." Link looked uneasy for a moment. "I wish she could just tell us herself, though. It feels kind of like... spying. When we do this."

"Why?"

"I dunno..." the Hero shook his head a little. "I mean, I like learning about things that we've all supposedly done in the past, but at the same time... It just makes me feel strange, I guess."

"Stranger than a former enemy becoming an ally?" Sheik asked dryly.

"Well, that sort of thing happens all the time, in all sorts of military histories. But it feels... I guess it feels sort of like prying. But if we didn't, we'd never know anything." After a moment, Link ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up. "I don't know, it's hard to find the right words to explain it."

"I doubt she'd be insulted if you decided you didn't want to know."

"But I _do_ want to know..."

Sheik chuckled a little, sympathetically patting Link on the shoulder.

"If she didn't want us to read them, she would have said as much; Lady Raiha is nothing if not forthright about such things. Why not talk to her about it, though? It may help to clear your head some."

After a moment, Link nodded.

"Okay. And, ah.. about Gan..."

"It's all right," Sheik interrupted. "It's only been a few months. We are mostly easy with one another, but he still has to needle. It is, I think, his way. I am not offended. Though," and he half-smiled, "if he thinks hauling books around is not strength training, he obviously has no idea how large some of the books are."

* * *

Raiha was chewing absently on the end of her pen as she walked, occasionally making a note or two in the book that floated alongside. It was, perhaps, a showy display of magic, but it also help to keep her hands free for what she was working with. Categorizing the books only went so far, they needed a _proper_ cataloging system, especially as it concerned the division of fictional stories and true deeds.

She had some small help at the moment, at least; not long after the noon hour, Link had come seeking her, and offered to look after the twins for a bit. It wasn't hard to guess that he wanted to talk, and she had a shrewd notion about what it was; of all of them, he was the least comfortable hearing about the past. It fascinated him, there was no denying that, but at the same time, he always seemed uneasy about it. She recalled quite vividly the constant worrying he'd done during and after they'd read Ocarina Tale.

It made her smile a little; he was such a fussy puppy. More mature now, but still so prone to looking up to her.

She made a few more notes, and reordered a couple of shelves that were mixed around—some of her trainees, no doubt—before she headed back to her office, where Link was on Daddy Duty. She paused briefly in the doorway, feeling softness and warmth slide through her. Link had younger siblings; a sister in Aryyl, and two brothers, whom he saw as often as he could get away. The Queen's Champion was a busy duty some days... His experience showed in how relaxed and at ease he was with both of them.

Bel and Naila were laid on the thick rug, the ornate coffee table pushed to one side, and Link was talking at them cheerfully, telling them about the letter he'd just received from his parents about life in Kakariko. They seemed to be listening with rapt attention, but first Naila, then Bel, looked past him and waved their arms gleefully at her, Bel making a gurgling, happy sound that made Link turn.

He smiled brightly at her as she meandered over to join them, flopping down on the floor with a faintly relieved sigh.

"They're really smart, huh?" he asked as she reached over to let the tins grab her hands.

"Of course they are," she smiled wryly. "They're ours."

Naila blinked solemn blue eyes at her mother, while Bel flailed wildly in delight at being talked too. Raiha smiled at both of them, and leaned in to give them both little kisses on the forehead before she glanced at Link. He looked pleased too, both by the praise,and by how she was acting; there had indeed been some uncertainty about how she would react to the babies once they were born...

"So, what's on your mind, puppy?" she teased gently.

His pleased look faded into discomfort.

"It's..." he hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. "Are you really... okay with us reading those journals?"

"If I wasn't, you'd never find them," she pointed out. "I wrote them to be a record. They just ended up being a lot more personal than they were supposed to; I am not exactly the impartial observer a historian is supposed to be. Why?"

"I just... it feels... odd?" he offered. "I mean, they're... your stories. So it feels weird to have Gan read them."

"If I tried to read you my stories, you'd never get the full tale," she sighed a little, lightly waving a toy over Naila's head; she swatted at it with a giggle. "I would self-censor at the very best... and at the worst, all those memories would come rushing to the fore. I do not like having a sudden memory swamp, Link. They are accompanied by pain more than pleasure, and in truth, I function better letting the past remain where it lies. But I understand that everyone would like to know, and it's perfectly fine.

"If it helps," she continued after a moment, "try to think of the author of the Tale as my ancestor. I am not necessarily the same person who wrote the Twilight Tale any more than I am the girl who wrote the Ocarina Tale. I have moved on from both of them, and while they _were_ me, I am _not_ them."

"I...I'll try," he said after a moment, a thoughtful look crossing over his face. "But..."

She leaned over, kissed his cheek lightly. He blushed, making her chuckle a little.

"Don't worry. It's in the past, both mistakes and successes. And there are... some things too big to forget. But truly, you lot can read the journals. Just... don't push Gan too hard, all right? Ocarina Tale was ancient, but this one is a bit more recent. Zelda's getting really good at reading Gelda, so if he starts... you know. Get her to read some for awhile and make him go take a walk."

Link nodded quickly; Ganon was not necessarily the type to backslide to evil—none of the evil had been his conscious decision—but he could be pummeled by memories, as she so often was. It was never fun, and usually took several days for recovery. He also _brooded_ while he was recovering, and the nightmares that had been a downward trend would kick back into high gear.

Naturally, Raiha wanted this to _not_ happen; she loved Ganon, and while she occasionally enjoyed kicking his ass, she much preferred him amicable. Plus, her sleep was shot enough with the twins. Selfish though it was, she would rather he stay in his own bed—or one of the others, if that was where he was.

"Feel better now?"

After a moment Link nodded a little.

"Good. Because if that clock tells me anything, it's that you're going to be late in training recruits again."

He glanced up. Yelped. Jumped to his feet, and ran out the door. Raiha grinned after him, then down at the twins.

"Your daddy is so silly."

They both gurgled happily and waved arms and feet.

"Ready to go see Mommy?"

More waving and kicking, and Raiha scooped them up one at a time to set them in the pram,then headed out; there was a meeting with Zelda that needed her presence as Royal Sage, and the twins were not being left out.

* * *

"Nayru bless, but they sure do use a lot of words to say pretty much nothing," Raiha muttered, shaking her head after the last of the norther diplomats had filed out the door. "You sure this was a good idea, Zellie?"

Hyrule's queen smiled a little.

"It may be difficult, but allying ourselves with other kingdoms beyond our borders is a good way to hold off potential invasions. Which, I believe, you told me yourself."

Raiha grimaced, absently rolling the pram back and forth as Naila and Bel napped.

"Yeah yeah, yeah yeah... Me and my big mouth. Did you get _anything_ useful out of that? Because the Gerudo were more forthcoming than that passel of stuff-shirts."

"The Gerudo were also more willing to enter a proper trade agreement when they met you, and eventually Ganon too,"Zelda replied serenely. "That one was made simpler without much effort. These will be more difficult, as Hyrule is a difficult country to reach. While we are amazingly self-sufficient, and surrounded by mountains on all sides, it would not harm us to look to our nearby neighbors and see what we can trade to improve lives."

Raiha had to shake her head a little.

"That said, they were indeed much more long-winded than necessary. Even the courtiers aren't that bad," Zelda added, a touch of wry humor entering her voice. "Hopefully, once they realize our efforts are sincere, they will be able to relax some."

"No kidding. This place is more than big enough, and hard to both get into and _out_ of. We'd do no one any favors by trying for a war of expansion like what's-his-face in Faron province wants. Least of all _us_ ," Raiha snorted a little.

"Did any of them notice...?"

"The magic?" And Raiha snorted again, this time derisively. "I doubt they even believe there _is_ such a thing. And it wasn't much anyways; just a light touch encouraging truthfulness, like I promised."

"It seems..."

"Zel, in the early stages, no one trusts anyone's sincerity. You've just got a bit of luck on your side in the form of me," Raiha shrugged a little. "Honestly, I'd do it anyways. My life has been spent protecting this country, and if anyone's paranoid, it's _definitely_ me."

"Dear..."

Raiha smiled faintly, dryly. After a moment, Zelda only sighed and shook her head a little.

"Just don't go overboard."

"As long as no one proves to present a threat, it's all good,"

"If that was meant to be comforting, it was not."

Zelda tried for a reproving look; Raiha only grinned. After a moment, the queen just shook her head again.

"About your journals-"

"Are you and Red going to take turns?" Raiha interrupted. "You're good enough that you ought to be able to read them without much effort."

"I had hoped that we might, honestly. Sometimes, during the reading of Ocarina Tale, he looked so disturbed and overwhelmed that we had to make him stop, even though he wasn't inclined towards that."

"Stubborn is not purely a Gerudo trait, but he does take it to extremes, doesn't he?"

"Sometimes, yes," Zelda frowned a little. "Hopefully this time he will be willing to listen. Would you... talk to him about it?"

"Well, I've talked to everyone else," Raiha rolled her eyes a little. "Really, one would think you lot would be able to take me at my word about this..."

"The Ocarina Tale detailed... your inner thoughts and motivations," Zelda said after a moment. "We just want to make sure it's not impinging upon your privacy."

"I know, I know, and I get that, but if I give permission, I _give_ permission. The fussing seems a bit... Much. Like I told Link, those journals aren't _me_. They are who I _was_ , and I'm not _her_ any more."

"Parts of you are, though."

Raiha's grin was lopsided and wry.

"Zellie, of all of them, you should get that the past isn't the present. What was, is not what _is_. I can no more be those women than if I _had_ been reincarnated. So really. It's fine. And it'll probably give you a much needed insight to what happened during the Twilight Debacle anyways. I know history falls woefully short on that era thanks to how the magic of Twilight worked."

"You'll... at least remain in the palace, yes?"

Now Raiha laughed.

"I have too much to do right now to go gallivanting off to the lake! Even if it _would_ be nice. We should all go down at some point, though; Tetra would probably like the break, and I'd like to see the Zora diplomats, show them Bel and Naila."

"You're right... it would be nice to go for a few days..." A pause. "Will you go talk to Ganon now?"

"Might as well," Raiha shrugged a little.

"Would you like me to watch the twins for a while? We'll go up to my study so I can go over some of the reports."

Raiha thought about it for a moment, then glanced into the pram; as far as she could tell, they were sleeping soundly enough, and Zelda certainly knew what to do when they woke. Plus, Zelda was also their mother, even if she hadn't carried them to term. So she nodded.

"Sure. Shouldn't be _too_ long. Theoretically."

Zelda laughed softly.

"'Theoretically.'"

* * *

He had, at least, hired the secretaries like she'd told him to. True, it had taken several _years_ to find those who weren't easily intimidated by the almost seven feet tall Gerudo male, but the effort had paid off. Most of the paperwork was actually getting _done_ these days,with only the most important documents making it to his desk.

And since she was known by sight and reputation, no one tried to stop her as she walked through the house of the Master of the Guard, and up the stairs to Ganon's office. She had already checked the practice yards—and waved to Link, though she had not stopped—and since he was not there, or in the arena with the horses, this was the place he would be.

It was funny, she reflected as she stood in the doorway of his office, how years of peace and love could change a person. True, he was giving the paperwork a vile look, but it wasn't half as heated as it might have been once. As it _had_ been, even five years ago.

"Keep making faces like that, and yours will get stuck," she said lightly. "You already look grumpy enough to scare recruits; we certainly don't want to terrify them."

"Ha ha," he grunted, glancing up at her. "Very funny."

"Well, I thought it was."

"Are you coming in, or just lurking because you're bored?" he asked.

"Please. I don't have the time to be bored," she retorted, stepping in and draping herself across a chair. "I wanted to clarify a thing with you, though."

"What about? Where's...?"

"Zelda's watching them, and the Twilight Tale."

He looked up properly now, then leaned back a little in his chair, setting the pen aside for the moment, with undisguised relief. It made her smile; she knew that feeling all too well.

"I thought you called it the Twilight Debacle," he said after a moment, studying her with sharp yellow eyes.

Raiha shrugged.

"I _refer_ to it as the Twilight Debacle. But Tale makes for a better alliteration, and matches with the previous set. Yes?"

"...hn. All right, so...?"

"So, I want you and Zelda to take turns reading it. Maybe even let Link have a go, even though he's still not that good at it."

"What, why?"

Raiha sighed a little, and picked her words carefully; she didn't want to provoke him into trying to prove her wrong, which he still did every now and again. Most of the time, she did that on purpose, but this time, the idea caused profound concern.

"Because being pummeled by memories, even unspecific ones, will hurt you. I'd like you to promise me that you won't try and read it all yourself. You've suffered enough... and I don't want to add to it. Also, it will give Zelda some practical practice. Link too, even if he needs help."

Ganon's scowl was softer than usual; she knew he didn't like being thought of as weak, but the memories were not something to laugh, or joke about. Absently he drummed his fingers on the desk and the anger drained away into a sort of grumpy resignation.

"All right. But you _really_ think Link's good enough?"

She snorted a little.

"He's well behind Zelda, and I doubt he'll be able to manage a _lot_ , but between the two of them, they are libel to be able to give you a break. And really, he needs the practice. I'd say let Sheik read some too, but he hasn't even really started learning yet; he only just finished the last of the book sorting that came about from his little accident a few months ago."

Ganon snickered a little at the memory; Raiha just shook her head lightly.

"Will you?"

"All right, all right. I promise I'll let Zel and the kid spell me on the reading."

Though he rolled his eyes in annoyance, she knew it was feigned; while Ganon hadn't had a nightmare recently, they both knew these journals were likely to stir them up again. But they both had appearances to keep up, even for one another.

Still, when he made a promise, he kept it. She she knew he _would_ let Zelda, at least,take the journals away and take over for him when it became too much.

"Good. How much more of that do you have to fuss with?"

And she pointed at the paperwork.

"...not much. Why?"

"Finish up, and we can show off for the newbies, of course!"

He snorted. Grinned at her.

"All right. Let's do it."

* * *

A late night soak was just what the healer ordered, and Raiha half-dozed in the comfortably warm water, while keeping an ear out for one of the babies turning fussy. She had, as far as she could tell, managed to convince everyone that she really _was_ fine with them reading the journals that held the Twilight Tale. She didn't doubt that Link would need some extra care while the story was being told, but the other three were made of sterner stuff, and would maybe learn the lessons she had not.

After all, even though she had been returned to the world by the goddesses, she had still made _plenty_ of mistakes. And one of the biggest was detailed in those pages.

She sighed a little; the Mirror of Twilight... Din but she hated how that had turned out. She should have broken it herself, long ago. But there had always been the hope that she could _fix_ things, could make it _better_. Could _atone..._

Raiha swept her wet hair out of her face and muttered a few choice words; it was well out of her hands now, and they already had plenty of proof that she wasn't this perfect idol of a person. This would hardly change that fact. And since dwelling on it was not going to help _her_ any, she firmly pulled her thoughts away from the Mirror, and the mess that it had led to.


	2. One

One

I hate this. Even after a decade,I'm still absolutely furious with myself. I had thought if I gave myself time, I would be able to tell this story without the anger,and the self-loathing, but it's all I can think of.

I failed. _Again_ , I failed. And what's worse, I don't even know _why!_ It should have worked! I should have been able to _yank_ the Triforce of Power out of Ganondorf's miserable hand and _fixed this mess!_

Nayru's tears, what did I do _wrong?_

….this is not coherent. Okay. Okay.

Stupid spell. I should never have done it this way. But it's too late now; I started this, I don't want to ruin another book by failing to finish. Just... keep going. Keep going Raiha.

Where this mess started... Din's flame, I think my pride started this one. My pride, and a desire to show that a Gerudo could do some good for Hyrule.

It started... with the commission. Before it became common to name the firstborn princess Zelda. Before the Triforce was split.

It would be so _easy_ to blame it on the cataclysm I knew was coming. But no. This is my mistake. My failure.

My greatest.

The war was something I tried to stop. I couldn't change too much because I had a duty to fulfill... and every time I tried changing an event that would alter that, I only made it worse. Or, the power of my mandate would...I suppose the best term is put me to sleep. It would remove my interference from the equation.

Time is complicated. It's not as simple as back and forth, or side to side. Not to a divine being. To mortals, and those who must live in the flow, yes, it's straightforward. Future and past and present are all what they are named, and...

I'm rambling. I need to stop.

So.

The Mirror of Twilight.

Before the earthquake, I could go between borders with ease. Ally with the Goron and the Zora, far stronger than their alliance to a Hylian King who's hold on his throne was shaky at best. The Mirror was meant only to... to look, I suppose. I wanted to see other timelines. I wanted to know how other things went, if I was in any of them. And then, after the quake, I also wanted to see my they safe, or had this undone them further?

Vanity, I suppose. A desire to know if I was ever a truly important placement, or just a lucky accident.

No. This started even before the Mirror. It started with the creation of the Light Spirits.

See, I knew the sundering would happen. I knew the Triforce would break, and while I wasn't certain when, I knew that when it _did_ , the slow death of magic would begin. I was still...I suppose you could call me high? From being reborn, remade by the goddesses, and the knowledge they had filled me with.

I did not want my world to be bereft of magic, so I decided to do something about it. I had... I guess, _seen_ is the correct word. Very well. I had seen memories of how to make the Light Spirits, so I set about figuring out how to do so.

The earthquake that altered the foundations of both Hyrule and the desert... I don't know if that helped or hindered me, really. I'm not even sure if it was natural, or somehow the earth responded to what I needed to do...

This is why this story is so hard to chronicle. There's so much... uncertainty about these memories. They were so long ago. I fear I tell them out of order.

I made the Spirits one by one, but I could not get back to the desert to place one there. Even then, the desert was restless, filled with angry dead; poes, stalkin, reDead... really, you name it, it could live in the desert. And of course, angry Gerudo as well, who thought that the Hylians had somehow caused the quake that so fundamentally changed the shape of the world.

But we were not a people who could go to war. Not to say that we didn't know how to fight; Gerudo are trained extensively in fighting skills. Or... were. But our numbers were few, and thanks to some destructive tendencies, dwindled in a relatively short amount of time.

The Light Spirits, once placed, were connected to me, additional sources of power that would continue to strengthen me, even as the ambient magic around me faded away. In hindsight, not a smart move, but I didn't fully understand then just how _bad_ it would be. Some days, I feel as though I am as much magic as person now...

I digress.

The Mirror wasn't meant to do more than look, not at first. The King commissioned me, actively sought me out as the displaced Gerudo, and promised to find a way to connect me back to the desert. I didn't fully trust him, but I had very little recourse, and... well, I had been playing with the idea of a seeing mirror for years.

The Zora found me the purest of sands, brought up from the bottom of their domain, their grand and glorious throne room. The Gorons helped me to get the other ingredients, and in truth, most of the creation process was thanks to them. They made me the glass that I could cut, the Mirror frame, all the embossing that I directed to help the Mirror hold the magic, and then the holder for the mirror, though at the time I had no idea where it was going.

And while this was happening, a process that took many years of effort, both in the finding and making of items, the King sought a way into the desert. I truly do think he meant to keep his end of the bargain... until his councilors began whispering rumors about my people into his ear; we are not trustworthy. We seduce men, and then leave them. Stupid, harmful bullshit that I've had to deal with for most of my life.

As cruel as it is, sometimes I feel glad that my people are gone. At least no one tosses slurs at me any longer.

In any case, their fear-mongering worked. Instead of a few peaceful traders going in to see if they could help, he sent out a small army. And of course my people retaliated! What else could they do?

They were not all slaughtered, but I don't know how many survived. Enough, at least,to keep the line going until Ganondorf's birth. By then, things were... so much worse.

The Mirror I'd made, as it turned out, did not _see_ the way I had intended for it to. Instead, it parted dimensional walls. Not enough to reach another _world_ , but far enough to find an... empty space. Anyone drawn into that space would become trapped, and would, eventually, die.

I almost broke it then. I _should_ have broken it then. But as much as I feared what I had made, I also... I loved it. It was beautiful, and it was dangerous. It was, in part, as much my child as the four Spirits were, and I couldn't bring myself to do what I should have.

And the king stole it from me.

His war had reached the sacred temple of my people, our last stronghold of magic and history. In my original time, it was called the Spirit Temple, though it was not so much a temple as a palace, a harem home for the women our king would claim as his own. He had the palace... stripped. Down to the base stones, all the treasures, all the statuary... taken, stolen, defaced.

And he repurposed it; what was once a sacred place, a repository of Gerudo history became a prison. Magic that was not mine was laid upon the place, and the cruelest, most evil of Hyrules prisoners were sent there. After all, it was a desert; even if they escaped, they would not survive the heat and the day long walk to a path that _might_ lead to freedom. If the heat didn't get them, the guards and archers surely would.

I did not present my mirror to him. While I was out, talking to those I could trust among the Zora and the Gorons, seeking advice on what I ought to do, soldiers came by and simply took it, unfinished, from the workshop.

It wasn't until they realized that they couldn't activate it that I was called again. By this time I had heard what he had done, and wanted nothing to do with the King, or Hyrule until my temper had settled. But magic was still strong, and even bolstered by my children as I was, I was not all-powerful.

I had blended magic with the glass and the silver backing, and not just the magic that would call the mirror to life. The spell that held everything together was stronger than that; only someone who knew as much about ancient Sheikah magic as I did could unravel the spell on the mirror and shatter it back into the golden sand from which it had been formed.

Perhaps that was where the mirror gained the ability to pierce into the realm of Twilight. I cannot say for certain. Only that I knew, with a certainty, that it was the magic I was meant to be using on the mirror.

Since they could not activate it themselves, they set it up so that I was forced to do so. At the top of the prison they called Arbiter's grounds, they set the mirror and frame next to an obsidian monolith that they had stolen from the Gorons, along with the mirror. It was, indeed, meant to companion it.

And then they set Gerudo women, and Sheikah fighters against me.

Mass melee combat is not in my grand repitoire of skills. I am not small, nor fragile, and I cannot be killed, but I can be gravely injured. At the time, I thought the immortality only covered the not aging; fearful of dying, I woke the mirror, and allowed it to consume everyone.

An observing mage of the court was the only one to escape. Everyone else; Gerudo, Sheikah, Hylian guardsmen and women... all gone. Consumed by the mirror.

I had done it to save myself, but that did not change the fact that I had just sent people into an unknown dimension, with no way of returning. And not just a small handful; the group had been around seventy people of mixed heritage.

Din, I still hate myself for this...

I escaped the prison and hid deep in the desert for many decades. I found a conclave of my people, who did not recognize me or know me, and hid with them for a time. I made a second, smaller mirror; this one did what it was meant to, and showed me what I wanted to see. _Needed_ to see.

Somehow, the people had survived. They had landed in a land full of shadows, and had _survived_.

This did not make my guilt easier to bear; living in eternal twilight had begun to change them already, and I could feel that there would be no way to get them back once they reached a certain point.

I tried. For _years_ , I tried. I would visit the prison in secret, climbing walls to a height that terrified me, knocking guards unconscious to experiment with the mirror. I learned I could send tings through, not just people, and my first goal was to find a way to give them some light.

I gave them the means to manufacture the Sols, light sources that would mimic the warmth of the sun, and could aid in growing plants for food. I found a way to go in, and return... but I could not bring anyone with me. And they could not bear to be around me for very long; to them, I was blindingly powerful. Over time, I turned into their guardian goddess...

At least,that is what I gleaned from Midna. I am certainly no goddess...

Eventually, my failures pushed me back to Hyrule, seeking entrance to the Temple of Light, through the Temple of Time. I had hoped to speak with Rauru the ancient Sage. But there was no way for me to pass; the Master Sword was in place, and I was not the Hero.

I was forced to wait.

In the end, my waiting mattered little. Events played out as they were meant; the Hero returned as a young boy, we stood with the Princess to condemn the evil king that was Ganondorf. They imprisoned him for many years, and none of his people, our people, were able to break him out.

Things only went from bad to worse when they took him to Arbiter's Grounds.

I don't know what possessed Dalfnesto consider this idea a wise one. I had told him myself that it was not, and at the time, he _listened_ to me.

I did not make it in time to prevent him from being sent through. I almost killed the Sage constructs myself in my fury... And the less said about how I treated the king upon my return, the better.

I have been, I suppose, hermiting rather religiously since that day. The fewer people I interact with, the better. And I had hoped, had _prayed_ , that Ganondorf would never find a way to emerge from the Twilight. A bodiless power was dangerous, but containable. But...

Well, this world would never be what it was if the cycle did not repeat itself time and time again. And there has not yet been a prison that could contain that arrogant bastard, let alone kill him. The void, the realm of the Twili, even the Master Sword... all have tried, all have failed.

And so we approach the beginning of this tale. Two centuries past the original sundering, magic faded bit by bit. Zelda and Link were born twice, each with the dormant piece within, but never at the same time.

Unfortunately, the need for certain events to happen meant that I had to allow the Great Deku Tree to pass. Without their guardian, the Kokiri and their forest passed. I grieved for them, but it also allowed me to move the Temple of Time from its place in the Castle Town Market; I wanted no further foolishness over Hylians hunting the Sacred Realm.

Faron Woods became the entrance to the Lost Woods, near the ancient body of the Deku Tree. Kokiri had continued to live within him for a time, but eventually they too passed; all save a single Skull Child who had sought me out from Termina, claiming friendship with Link, and seeking friendship.

That little imp is all that remains of those eternally young beings. And he is a wonderful guardian against intrusions. As are the trees of the Wood itself. And the Temple of Time rests at the heart of this wood.

Most lifetimes, I do as well, though I return periodically to renew ties with Gorons, Zora, and be the voice of the Eldin Province, as necessary.

I waited so long... And in the end, I was as unprepared as the Hero when the danger finally came.


	3. Two

Two

As I stated, I am bonded to my Light Spirits, in many cases more magic than mortal. Usually, this is a benefit to me, as it gives me access to more magical strength than I can really ever use up. And their presence helps small pockets of magic remain alive in the world. Not necessarily _good_ ones, but... at this point, the only one who handles magic with any sort of regularity beyond myself is Princess Zelda.

Mn. Queen Zelda, now.

The downside to this, however, is that when I lose that power... well...

When Lanayru fell to the Twilight, I was unprepared. I was in my province, Eldin, in Kakariko to be specific, speaking with Renado the shaman about... well, I forget now. To be honest, the sudden strike of pain that assaulted me, the scream that rang through my head and my ears both, completely obliterated any hope of that memory.

The pain... it was searing. Every nerve of my body was on fire, all the fine hairs standing on end. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think. I dimly remember collapsing, and Renado's alarm...I wish I could have avoided scaring him.

The abrupt end to the pain was almost as bad as its sudden onset. I trembled with reaction, my ears ringing, my breath rasping in my throat.

 _Lanayru!_ The other three spirits cried.

Lanaryu...

My wise water dragon, did not answer the mental call.

"Lady Raiha," Renado's worried voice broke into my thoughts. "Lady?"

"I'm...I'm okay," I replied, struggling back to my feet. "Stay here. Something's... something's gone wrong."

I can't tell you from where I gathered the energy to sprint to the exit of the village, but I managed it, even jumping over a young Goron who reflexively rolled into a ball as I did so. Just beyond the village was a view I had often admired... and now there seemed to be a wall of golden twilight blanketing it,separating it off from the rest of Hyrule. It stretched far, farther than I could see on the ground, but I didn't want to waste time or breath climbing to a vantage point.

Part of me wanted to run directly into that wall. To discover directly, just what had happened to my spirit, my Lanayru. Were I younger, more hasty, I probably would have done so. But I am older now, and paranoia is not so much a watchword as it is a way of life.

Instead,I ran back into the village, stopping first at the Goron I had almost tripped over.

"Run to your Elders. Trouble is coming, and their strength may be needed to defend Kakariko," I informed him. "And tell them to keep an eye on their ancient treasure. _Do not_ touch it. Remind them of this."

Gorons, at the least, were made of hardy stuff. He nodded briskly and rolled away quickly, hurrying in the direction of Death Mountain; I could only hope the Gorons would heed me; Darbus was not Darunia, and while I was a Sworn Sibling of the tribe, sometimes, they and the Zora both forgot that I was not as young as I appeared.

Next, I found Renado.

"Danger approaches," I told him firmly, before he could say anything. "It approaches swiftly, likely on the hooves of war beasts. Whatever just happened, Hyrule Castle has fallen."

He looked down at me, then nodded.

"What would you have us do, Lady."

"Protect the Spirit Spring if you can. But not at the cost of your own lives."

The pain had ebbed enough by then for me to keenly sense the loss of a quarter of my extra power. I had gone so long with their abilities supporting my own that I had long forgotten how it felt to not have the power there.

"If the enemy is too strong, protect yourselves first," I continued, sparing only a glance at Eldin's spring. "I know where to find help, but it will not come with any great swiftness. I'm sorry."

"We will do all we can. And with Goron aid, we will, hopefully, prevail. Be safe, please."

Safe... If I could have promised him that, I would have; I had not raised Renado, but I had seen that his gifts had received what training they could. I counted him as a friend, one of the few I had made in this particular generation.

"I will try," was all I said.

He bowed, and went to collect the villagers, who were milling about mostly due to my unexpected behavior. Like Ordonian goats they were, except less prone to headbutting. Slightly.

I turned to Eldin's spring.

 _Stay hidden_ , I told the spirit. _No matter what comes, do not let it draw you out._

 _My mother, I hear._

The spirit was not typically visible to ordinary eyes, not without specific summoning. The water of the spring carried healing properties while it resided there, and was the greatest source of the village's strength, next to their connection with the Gorons. I could only hope that they would agree to help their long-time allies.

I left at as quick a pace as I could manage; I admit, I was rattled enough to forget that I could summon a horse until I was far beyond a point to turn back. I thought about doing it on the run, Ocarina in my mouth, then decided against it; I was going to need the breath and the energy before too much longer.

It normally took four days at a brisk walk to cross the Kakariko Plains, with taking breaks and resting at night. I did it in two, with only a few brief breaks to rest my weary body. I wanted to reach the Hero first, _needed_ to get to him before anything else could happen.

As I entered the Southern Hylian Plains, I heard Eldin scream.

I tumbled ass over teakettle as the pain hit, biting my lip until it bled to keep from echoing that cry. The bow on my back cracked into pieces, robbing me of a necessary weapon just when I needed it most. For when the pain ebbed, and I discovered myself at only half strength, I saw them.

I'm not entirely sure it could be called an army; bulbins are generally disorganized into groups smaller than the tiniest of Gerudo tribes, usually too busy intimidating the random unexpectent traveler to actually band into something greater. But this was a small hoard; at least four dozen, riding the battle boars of the desert, and led by the largest bulbin I had seen in over a century.

What was worse was that they were charging straight for the wood.

Practically speaking, what I did next was foolish; I should have conserved my strength, climbed hills and trees to avoid this oncoming mob to protect myself. What I did instead was charge up the strongest fireball I could manage, and sent it winging across the plain.

My fireball impacted their line, knocking bulbins from their pigs, spreading fire and death... and certainly got their attention. Only too late did I realize that the only weapon I had outside my magic was my sword. _They_ had bows.

It was decidedly not my smartest move; I was reacting to the situation, instead of acting upon it, which generally does not go well for me. I work better when I have a plan, even a loose idea of what to do is better than simply reacting to the situations as they appear. And while normally I could have magically decimated their entire battle group, being down half my additional strength meant husbanding what power I _did_ have. The loss of their support did not just affect my magic abilities, but my physical ones as well...

A third of the line shifted in my direction, ordered by a blast from the leader's horn. Swearing, I cast Nayru's Love about myself to protect me from the arrows, stuck two fingers in my mouth, and sharply whistled the notes of the horse-calling song.

The song had never failed me before, but it was still several long, tense moments before the magic deposited the horse on the plain from wherever the mare had been. She was bare of saddle, reins, or anything that might help me, which meant that she was not one I'd raised. But she was a horse, and that was all I needed.

I vaulted onto her back, and we took off across the plain. I didn't care so much about the minions as I did the leader; usually taking out the leader would result in absolute chaos, not matter the race. The mare was not battle trained, but she responded well to the shifts of weight and the pressure of my knees and feet, turning where I wanted her, charging ahead as rapidly as she could.

I drew my sword, and aimed a swipe, not at the leader, but at his battle boar. The gilded blade scored deeply into the metal of the boar's protective face armoring, throwing sparks and screeching harshly. The boar reared back in reaction, almost dumping its heavily armored rider, but before it could try and retaliate with either tusks or cloven hooves, the horse and I were out of range.

I felt arrows ping off the shield I had wrapped around me, and belatedly extended the spell to cover the horse as well, energy drain or not.

 _Faron! Take the spell over!_

I could have held it, probably, but by allowing Faron to hold the spell, I was better able to concentrate on both riding, and fighting, without having to worry about my defense. I lit up another fireball in my other hand, drawing on my power and Ordana's as I launched it at the line again. If I could keep them out of the wood...

Most of them were upon me rapidly, and when the arrows did not work, they broke out the clubs. While the clubs couldn't _hurt_ me, they were capable of separating me from my horse, and on foot, I lost what little advantage my surprise attack had garnered. The horse, far wiser than I, cut and run. Without a rider, she made it away safely.

I was not so lucky.

Athletic, I am, strong and quick. But being piled on by over a dozen, club-wielding bulbin does not make for a winnable fight. Too late I realized that the large leader had only been briefly halted by my attack. The shield spell kept me from injury, but the transmitted force still applied. I could, _did_ , go down under the clubs.

What I should have done from the start was teleport to the Lost Woods. To the relative safety of the ancient, derelict Temple of Time. It would have been difficult to get out of, but better that than what actually happened.

They scattered bare seconds before my shield was shattered, and Faron's scream rang through my head. The twilight dropped over Faron province like a lead weight, smothering and tepid. I felt the change that warped the land, that wrapped around me, and fought it. Fought with everything I had, resisting the change to spirit... but causing a different change instead.

When the pain faded, I attempted to sit up. At first I thought I was only halfway until I registered some... paramount differences. Scent, most notably, had been enhanced. I could hear a far different strata of sound.

I had remained conscious through sheer force of will, and when I looked down, I saw paws instead of hands. Twisting to glance over my shoulder, I saw a long back, and a delicate tail. One paw reaching up found the too-large ears, brushed past the whiskers.

The power of Twilight had remanded me into a cat form. Specifically, I was a desert cat, a sand cat. Better than an unknowing spirit, at the least, but in the moment, it was heavily disorienting.

The bulbin had not escaped transformation, and within moments I heard them begin to converge upon me again. In this form, I could not access _any_ magic, and the only weapons I had were the natural ones of any predator; claws and teeth.

I tried, I really did, to reach for any sort of magic, any spell that might help me. In the end, pursued by the twilight-transformed bulbin, I ran like hell. It was, perhaps, the most prudent decision I had made yet. On four feet I was faster than the stubby-legged shadow bulbin.

Several still managed to catch me with arrows, just before I made it to the trees. I yowled. Tumbled. And managed to land in a nook that the creatures could not reach or find. Panting and trembling, I laid still, listening hard for the continued pursuit, and praying with everything in me that whatever had happened did not reach Ordana; while I doubt I would have become a spirit, the loss of the whole of Hyrule would have been as demoralizing to me as watching the palace burn was to the guards.

The bulbin were neither silent, nor stealthy. They crashed among the trees, and I was easily able to mark their passage, though I couldn't tell I they sought to capture or kill me. Given the number of arrows, and their placement, death was the most probable. I cannot say with any certainty that they would have failed either; in _my_ body, I am armored against such things. The goddess mandate requires me to be alive, my memory to be... _mostly_ intact, and my abilities to be well-honed.

In the feline body, I did know if those protections would hold. So I laid in the brush, feeling the arrows that pierce my back and my legs, and was, for the first time in a long while, afraid for my life.

In my fear, I called for Ordana; not to come _too_ me—Faron province was not her territory, and she could not step beyond the bounds of her lake anyways—but for reassurance.

 _Ordana, do you yet remain?_

 _My mother, I am not harmed. But I am afraid._

Well, that made two of us.

 _I am coming._

I was trying, at least. At the time I didn't realize that my protections were still in place, regardless of my body; I just thanked Din that my tumble had managed to break the long shafts without driving the arrows deeper into my body. I could move cautiously, low to the ground, through the brush without catching on things and aggravating the injuries.

It was exhausting. _Pain_ is exhausting.

Taking the long route through the trees, as opposed to the easier forest floor path allowed me to see the moment everything went all to hell.

I had stopped to nurse my wounds and catch my breath just inside the province, near the lantern oil seller's home when the bulbin leader came crashing back through. He had a young woman slung over the front of his saddle, clearly unconscious—for which the poor thing could probably be grateful, bulbin _reek—_ and was followed by two smaller bulbin and an extra battle boar. Both boars carried more unconscious forms; children, looking between the ages of three at the youngest, to eleven, maybe twelve at the oldest. All were bound with ropes, and unconscious.

Part of me wanted to be grateful that Link was not among them, but bulbin taking prisoners was unheard of. They raided for food, for water, for shelter... but prisoners? No. It made no sense.

Fortunately, concealed as I was, they completely missed seeing me.

 _Ordana!_

 _My mother, the beasts have taken the children of the village. The Hero pursues!_

 _What? No! Stop him!_

If I could have sworn aloud, I would have. As the boars thundered past, what came out was a series of hisses and spits, and I dug my claws into the ground, wanting very badly to leap upon them. In this, my sense prevailed, and I remained where I was until they had passed. Then, regardless of arrows, pain and injuries, I loped through as fast as I could.

I still was not in time.

I felt the surge of power from his Triforce even as I made it to that final clearing that separated Faron province from Ordon province, and heard a shriek of fear and pain from the shadow being that had drawn him across into this twilight-pervaded area. I saw, for a brief moment, the Hero on his hands and knees before the Triforce flared once more. Link cried out in pain, and midway turned from man to wolf.

I will not repeat the litany of curses that ran through my head, though they were many. Judging by his collapse after transforming, it had come with unexpected pain. I cannot say if mine had, given that it was lost in my reaction to Faron's decimation, but then, I am also used to suffering through great pain and still clinging to consciousness. This Hero was young yet, barely seventeen if he was a day, and had lived a peaceful life thus far; his collapse could hardly be unexpected.

The shadow beast returned after several long minutes, and proceeded to grab the wolf by one back leg, then drag him towards me. I backed away, seeking further cover, and settled in to wait until it walked past.

Something about the shadow beast was pure anathema to me. My fur stood on end, my lips drew back in a snarl, and my claws dug into the damp earth. I was ready to pounce, to use fangs and claws to tear the creature to shreds and send it back to the realm from which it came; I could not change what had happened, but I would be damned if they took away the best chance of saving Hyrule from me.

As it passed I tensed. Prepared to pounce to fight, attack, do _something!_

I missed.

I don't know if it sensed me, or if I made some noise, but the creature teleported away, taking the Hero with it. My landing was less than graceful, and several arrows dug their way deeper into my body.

To call it a very bad day would have been something of an understatement, really. I had to force myself to sit there until the pain subsided, then carefully, slowly, made my way to the place where Link had come through.

To my complete disgust, the wall was not permeable; I could not slide through it to reach lands untouched by the unnatural twilight the way I had hoped. Resigned and annoyed, I limped back to Faron's pool, and set about getting as many of the arrows out as I could, with as much care as possible.

"Oh, well don't you look all battered and beat up, little... furry thing," came a voice that was both unexpected, and mildly mocking. "Do you need some _help?_ "

I was on my feet in an instant, all my fur fluffed out in angry challenge, and came face to face with a Twili being.

Midna.

Oh, I did not learn her name then and there, but the fact that she was a Twili was impossible to miss. I _knew_ what the people set upon me had become. I had seen how the twilight realm had changed them to live there.

I knew the crown she wore. The fused Shadows that had been born from strangers from beyond the desert, strangely kin to both Gerudo and Sheikah magic. It tossed me into a whirl of clouded memories, where I had needed the help of my spirits to seal away three of the four pieces, and the fourth, like the people who had produced it, had been sent through the Mirror of Twilight, into the world beyond.

I had to force myself to maintain a threatening stance; there had to be a reason she had been there. Had she been watching? How long? Spying? Was she the enemy, or was she a potential ally? I could not afford to allow my shock, my knowledge of who she must be, to show.

"Oh ho, you're a fierce furry thing, is that it? I just thought those arrows you can't reach looked pretty painful, so maybe you wanted some help... but if not, I'll just be on my way."

As far as manipulation attempts went, it was _painfully_ blatant. I admit, I was under-impressed, though I mostly backed down from the threatening stance; in truth, I _couldn't_ reach the arrows, and they _did_ hurt. She grinned, displaying small fangs, and floated on over until she was above me. Both the instincts of the cat, and my own paranoia didn't like having her behind me, so I twisted my head around as much as I could to watch her.

I will say this much; she was surprisingly gentle in getting the arrows out. It hurt, nothing could change that fact, but having them out meant that the magic still sustaining me could speed the healing of the wounds. If Faron had been in the pond, the water would have helped as well, but without the power of a Light Spirit, the water was simply that again.

When she was done, I started to wash the blood away,though I kept a wary ear and eye on the Twilight Princess. She, in turn, regarded me narrowly through one visible eye.

"You're too small to be of much use," she finally said dismissively. "That wolf-boy would be more to my liking."

She was baiting me again. I ignored it, and kept washing.

"What, no longer interested in me, now that you're all better? But you _owe_ me now."

That much was true enough. I still ignored her until I could no longer taste blood in my fur, and only then did I stare at her as steadily as she was staring at me. It wasn't hard to guess that she wanted my help for whatever reason.

"Your small size is no good for riding on," Midna grumbled a little. "I suppose I _will_ have to go get the other one. Then I'll have two servants. Come on then~!"

I yawned a little, deliberately, then padded over to sit in close proximity. If she was going to try and wind me up, I could easily do the same by feigning little to no interest. But instinct told me that staying close to this little imp was in my best interest.

Being teleported is not necessarily pleasant when you have no control over it. I was dragged along with Midna in darkness and silence until we came out in a place I almost didn't recognize. It had been a very long time since I'd been to the castle, and I almost never went into the dungeons. But there was a sense about the castle, especially when a princess with Wisdom is born, that is impossible to not know for me.

Annoyingly enough, my right paw began to tingle. It was how I knew when a true Triforce wielder had been born, but it was never a comfortable, or pleasant sensation. As my senses cleared, I saw the bars that separated me from Link, and strangely enough, Midna had elected to appear in the cell with him.

I cannot say if he heard or smells us first, but he dropped the chain he'd been worrying at, and turned to face Midna, first going low to the ground, and then growling.

"I can't seem to find _anyone_ pleasant today," she sighed in complaint, easily vaulting over the head of the wolf. "This one snarls and growls too, and here I was planning on being helpful... if you were nice, that is."

While I couldn't exactly see her face, I could guess from her body language that she was giving him a sly look. But the idea of help, especially when one is chained up, is hard to ignore; Link's wary defensiveness vanished almost immediately. Inwardly, I sighed; this was going to just get ridiculous in a hurry, wasn't it?

"There we go. Obedient humans are so helpful," she giggled. "Oh, wait, you're not a human right now, are you? You're a beast!"

And she patted upwards, hitting the underside of his jaw twice. Link snapped at her, even as she dodged back, giggling again.

"Oh, don't be so touchy. No need to bite, just be a good boy, and I'll get that chain off you."

 _Just let her_ , I sighed mentally. _It'll make this go much faster._

He looked beyond her, to me, as Midna cast her spell, but if he was about to say something, it was cut short as the links of the chain holding him snapped neatly. It made him jump, and I admit, surprised me as well; while I could have eventually done the same thing, it would have taken more effort to get the energy within the twilight.

He stared at her, then at me.

" _What's going on_?" he asked, his voice trailing up into a whine of confusion.

It was my turn to stare; I hadn't realized that I could speak to someone else trapped like this as I was. Midna's laugh precluded my answer.

"You look surprised! I bet you're wondering where you are, hmm?~" and she phased herself outside the bars until she was standing next to me. "Well, if you can get out here, I'll tell you?~"

I made a faintly annoyed sound as Link shifted from one paw to the other in uncertain anxiety.

" _Look, these boxes here are blocking a hole in the bars,_ " I 'said' after a moment. " _If you can break them, you can get out. Also, be wary; she pretty much means to treat you like a mount._ "

" _These boxes?_ "

He pawed uncertainly at the crates that blocked the way.

" _Those boxes, yes. Are there any others?_ "

I say we spoke but it's not quite the same as human speech; Midna couldn't hear us at all, and as we were soon to discover, only other animals could speak with us when we were in cat and wolf forms. Not that it stopped Midna from talking _at_ us...

Of course, even with this knowledge, I didn't know what to say to him. Of all the ways I had anticipated, planned for, this? This was definitely not one of them. Perhaps fortunately,Link was not so constrained, and spoke to me first.

" _Do you know where we are?_ " he asked plaintively.

" _Yes. We're in Hyrule Castle. But I don't know what this imp means to do with us... Only that she plainly wants our help with something. So hurry up and get out of there so we can find out what that is._ "

I was, undoubtedly, not as polite as I could have been. _Should_ have been. Fortunately, Link is good-hearted, and quick to forgive, and after studying the wooden crates for a few minutes, he charged headlong into them. They shuddered under the impact, then broke when he hit them again, falling away from the broken bars and the damaged stonework beneath.

I winced a little; the crates had come apart reluctantly, and attacking them had certainly looked more than painful enough. But Link's wolf form was far more sturdy than my sand cat, and as he dug his way out,I realized that Midna had vanished. Her laughter echoed around us both, and Link's ears flattened uneasily as he looked around.

I shouldn't have been surprised that she landed on his back. I really shouldn't have; she had _said_ as much. He tried to toss her off for several minutes, but she clung, much like a burr, until he stopped, panting with the exertion.

"Well, I guess you're not _completely_ stupid," she sighed, leaning forward over his shoulder to look into his face. "Listen, I think I like you, so I'll help you get out of here~ But in return..." she reached up and grabbed his ear, yanking it back. He yelped, and I growled at her in warning. "You both have to do _exactly_ as I say."

" _This hurts!_ "

" _What do you want me to do about it?_ " I asked irritably. " _She's got us both where she wants us right now. We don't really have a lot of choice._ "

He whined a little then yelped again as she released his ear, only to kick his sides as though he was a horse. I sighed, and moved closer, to be nose to nose with him.

" _Relax. I don't_ think _she actually means any harm. I can lead you through the palace, though out is going to take some doing..._ "

" _Who are you?_ "

" _Raiha. Now keep up, pup. We have a ways to go._ "

I turned away from him then, to the next cell where I knew there was a not-so-secret passage to the sewers that ran under the palace. The chain to open it was over my head, but cats are naturally adept jumpers. Problem was, it took more than my meager weight to drag it down; it plainly hadn't been tended to in some time, and rust—among other things, blocked the gears from turning.

" _Jump up there and grab it would you?_ " I asked as I dropped back to the dungeon floor. " _I'm not heavy enough._ "

Link looked at me, then at the chain. After a moment, he sprang up and grabbed the iron loop in his jaws, and his weight did what mine could not. The rust and grime showered down from the overhead mechanism, and the iron grating tucked into the corner of the derelict cell opened up.

" _Couldn't we have gotten her to just open the door?_ " he asked a little plaintively.

" _How? She doesn't seem to hear us speaking like this, and I have no patience for pantomime. Come on._ "

He heaved a sigh, but followed obediently enough. It wasn't perfect, but at the moment, it would do.

The tunnel ended in the more open environment of the palace's underground waterway; it was not a place people put in the dungeons could escape from easily, if ever. While there weren't typically guards there, I certainly saw the ghostly outline of a Hylian guardsman, clinging to his spear and shaking.

Cautiously, fearing a trap of some sort, I approached, and placed my paw against the guard's knee; he was solid enough that I didn't go through, but at the same time he didn't seem to _see_ me. Or even feel my touch. Instead he kept glancing around in something of a panic, mumbling repeatedly about the noises he could hear, and to stay back.

To say the hair on the back of my neck rose... well, that would be an understatement; this was not a dead person, an angry Poe seeking revenge or closure. This Hylian was still _alive_. And yet he was somehow a spirit. My entire body fluffed up without provocation, causing Midna to giggle.

"Is this your first time seeing a spirit of the other world?" she teased. "Don't worry, they can't see or hear _you_. You're both perfectly fine."

I hissed at her, ears flat to my head, and strode off down the stone walkway, tail lashing, and Link following behind. I glanced briefly back at the Hero; his lupine tail was tucked low as well, not _quite_ between his legs, but it wasn't hard to see that this place was creeping him _right_ the hell out.

It wasn't making me feel very good either.

We encountered several strange black creatures, mostly tentacles around one large eye; somewhere between rats and jellyfish for intelligence. Killing them was a matter of letting the instincts of the bodies we wore take over. And they tasted _terrible_ , like blood and ink and ash.

Don't ask how I know what that tastes like.

A webwork of spikes proves little hindrance to me, but the larger form of Link could not pass so easily. I looked from him, to the spikes, then jumped up onto the stone walkway again.

" _Go back that way, directly behind you; there should be the controls for the water level back there._ "

" _What about you?_ "

" _Boy, I'm already across. I don't look forward to being wet. Just do it quickly so_ you _can cross, because I am_ not _going to leave without you._ "

Again, not as polite as I should have been, but the twilight, the weight of it, and the worry over what might happen if Ordana was taken as well, were all pressing upon my mind. I told myself that later—if we got a later—I would apologize for my temperament. As it was, I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to, to get out of the waterway.

Fortunately or un, Link was indeed very obedient. He traversed the path back, and I heard the firm clunk of the waterway being opened. The water rose quickly, and the instincts of the cat proclaimed, very vehemently, that the water lapping over my paws was highly unpleasant, and needed to be escaped with all due speed.

Link came swimming cheerfully in my direction, and I quickly pointed him down the path that would lower the water back down to where it had been; four shadow vermin later, and the clunk echoed through again. Fastidiously, I shook my paws, and led the way towards the cistern, where stone and metal bars blocked our path once more. Midna, with a grin and snicker, abandoned Link and phased through the bars.

"Well now, if you can find a way over here, you'll _really_ be smarter than you look," she said cheekily.

I could have slipped easily through the bars... but I could not, even now, abandon the Hero. Especially not when he looked like a half-drowned, kicked puppy.

Fortunately, the hole in the wall was hardly difficult to miss. He followed behind me without much fuss once I pointed it out, and though we bypassed another spirit—all of them had been dressed as guards, though with their terrified demeanor, I couldn't help but feel like they hadn't done more than pretend fight against one another, if that—we did not stop to listen.

Upon reached the upper level, Midna regained her position on Link's back, and smiled slyly at me.

"All the spirits in here seem to be wearing some sort of uniform," she said in her lilting voice. "I wonder where we could be."

I gave her an irritated look, and proceeded up the cistern stairs. The cistern, I knew, wouldn't necessarily get us _out_ of the castle, but it would get us up to the roof, and from there I could figure out which wing we were in. Some memories I allowed to fade; others, like the placement of the secret passages in and around Hyrule castle, I did not.

It was not easy going; the cistern itself had never been easy to get to, so a good portion of the stairs had fallen, and the gaps were surmounted by only singly strung ropes. Heights and I have never gotten along, but I can usually handle them.

Here, my light weight was a good thing, and Link's heavier frame resulted in a stair crumbling under him, knocking him back down into the water, to Midna's clear disgust.

"Really?" she sighed. "What _are_ you doing? Keep up with the kitty!"

" _Are you okay?_ " I asked, peering carefully down at him.

" _She could_ float _herself up,_ " he grumbled a little.

" _Probably. Come on._ "

The gap, when he approached it, proved to be too far for him to jump. Midna's disgusted sigh rang out again.

"I have to do _everything_ ," she said. "Okay, fine,I'll go over first and then you jump. I'll make sure you make it."

It didn't necessarily sound comforting, and I saw the uncertain look Link cast in my direction... but there was no other recourse, and once he nodded, Midna did exactly as she promised; his jumps were, with magic, enhanced to be more like cat jumps. Very neat and precise. He kept up with me easily as we made it to the top, where we paused briefly to catch our breath.

"Finally," Midna stretched in an exaggerated sigh of her own. "We made it to the top! Now we just need to get out that door up there, and you'll be able to find out where we are!"

She smiled a little smugly, and I just gave her a disdainful look that only cats can really master.

" _I was supposed to go to Hyrule Castle_ ," Link said dubiously. " _But definitely not like this._ "

" _We're going to be coming out on a rooftop; stay low and prepare to brace for a pretty stiff wind,_ " I told him. " _We'll_ _have to cross the rooftop to get to another tower, and from there I should be able to find a way to get down to ground level again._ "

" _What then?_ "

" _...I think...we may need to go meet the princess. She'll know what happened... and maybe how to fix things._ "

I hated not knowing the scope of the situation. I needed more information than I currently had. That meant a detour, that meant Zelda. I could feel her Triforce piece, which meant she was still alive and well, and as luck would have it, once we were up onto the roof, I knew exactly where we were.


	4. Three

Three

Naturally, it was raining. On most occasions, I enjoy the rain; on this one, it just made the stones and rooftop tiles slick and I could have cheerfully cursed whichever god had decided that Hyrule in danger meant _rain_.

"Well, we _finally_ made it out," Midna sighed with an elongated stretch. "And look at this twilight~ Isn't it just so lovely? Have you figured out where we are yet?"

" _Should I try and say anything?_ " Link asked me.

" _No, let her keep thinking you're clueless. While we have to ally with her for now, it wouldn't hurt for her to underestimate you. Let's hurry, though; Zelda should be in that tower over there..._ "

" _Still_ no?" Midna sighed theatrically. "Well, all right then. I need you to go meet someone; she's in that tower over there."

That brought me up short; this imp knew Zelda? How? Why? Was she _helping_ Zelda somehow? If this was her idea of help... what sort of trouble was Zelda _in?_

There were spirits on the rooftop as well; roof guards, who could take stock of the great black Twilight monsters, but had no clue that we three were there. And of course, the ever-present scaffolding that provided access for rooftop repairs, which were _always_ an ongoing project. The palace always had something that needed fixing...

We were forced to face down two of the strange birds that had taken the place of the kargarok which typically cause trouble on the roof, but one broken neck and a torn out throat later, and we managed to make a run for the open window that let us in to Zelda's tower.

Immediately, we both shook off as much water as we could, ignoring Midna's yelp and annoyed complaint.

" _Will the princess be like those spirits?_ " Link asked.

" _...I guess we'll find out, won't we?_ "

Truthfully, at the moment I had no idea _what_ we would find. But I could feel her, and I could smell her, and that gave me some hope that I would find her in a form that we could at least be understood in.

The lightning flash as we entered the room was wonderfully dramatic, and Link, wary, dropped low with a faint growl. This lasted until I cuffed him upside the head, and the figure at the window turned in surprise at his yelp; I had used claws, you see. I was in no mood for him to be impolite to Zelda. Midna's snicker was audible.

Zelda herself was as solid as we were, wrapped in a cloak that was ancient in magic; one of the last of the Sheikah spell nulifiers in existence. Upon properly seeing that this was not, in fact, some sort of enemy, Link followed my lead as we approached, and I sat neatly before her, wrapping my tail around my forepaws.

But Zelda's attention was not on me.

"Midna?"

"Awww, you remembered my name," the little imp grinned sharply. "What an honor for me~"

"I... you only sought one when we last spoke. Which...which was the one you sought?"

"Well," and Midna shrugged a little. "I liked them both so much I decided I'd keep them. I saw him first, then her, but she's so small I thought I should get him just to make sure."

Link glanced at me; I affected a very human shrug. I had no idea what they were talking about. Zelda glanced at me, then at Link, then knelt so that she was not towering over us. I have to say, I am used to being the tallest in the room; it was very strange to be the smallest.

Her gaze fell to Link's chain, and I saw sorrow in her blue-gray eyes.

"I am sorry for your imprisonment," she said softly.

"These poor things don't know _where_ they are, _or_ what's happened," Midna said, her voice alive with mischievous glee. "So perhaps you should explain to them what you managed to do? You owe them that much, don't you... Twilight Princess."

Almost, _almost_ I turned to attack Midna. Zelda, as if sensing this, put a hand on my head in a soothing manner. I growled low in my throat, but allowed her to prevent the attack. I also managed to push just a hint of magic out, which startled Zelda, and made her take a closer look.

"...Raiha?" she whispered.

My whiskers went forward of their own accord, in pleasure at being recognized, and I lightly rubbed my head against her hand. I admit, when it comes to a Zelda with the Triforce of Wisdom, I am something of a soft touch.

Zelda let out a slow breath, then looked between the two of us.

"This was once the kingdom of Hyrule," she said softly, "where the power of the gods is said to sleep. But the king in the twilight has taken the kingdom, and transformed it into a world filled with shadows, where creatures who shun the light run rampant.

"When we were attacked, it was sudden and swift. There was no time to seek aid, or call, there was barely time to fortify the throne room as the last bastion of safety. There was over two dozen men standing between myself and the enemy, and we hoped that it would be enough."

She bowed her head, and the hand that was visible clenched into a fist.

"We were wrong. The first attack was a mass of shadow and smoke, and from it, they appeared."

"Shadow beasts," Minda supplied, her expression, for a moment, serious.

"Yes," Zelda nodded. "They were far faster than the soldiers, and in no time at all, they had smashed the men to pieces. And then from the shadows walked... I am not sure how to describe him. He wore a large helmet, and in part it resembled a Zora helmet, but only in part. His robes were black with green geometric detailing... and it was clear that he was the one in charge.

"I was given a choice. The death of my soldiers, or complete surrender."

For a king, the choice might have been different; many kings are so full of their pride that such a defeat would only spur them to call Zant's bluff. But for Zelda, compassionate and wise, who cared more for her people than for herself, it wasn't hard to see how she had been led to this trail.

"Within moments of my surrender, the twilight blanketed the whole of Lanayru province, and I have watched it march on beyond where my own eyes can see. Within this world, the people still live, but they are as spirits, and unawares of what has happened. But they know fear now... fear of the nameless evil that has taken the castle."

I knew then that this 'king of twilight' was nothing more than a puppet;I could feel Ganondorf's hand in this mess,as surely as if he was standing behind me, laughing his cold, cruel laugh.

….the memory of which still haunts me.

Zelda sighed a little, and pushed back her hood.

"Though the people do not remember, I still remain their princess. My name is Zelda."

Link promptly sat up straight, which threw Midna off balance; had I been able to, I would have laughed.

"Oh, don't look so sad," Midna scoffed lightly. "Really, it's quite liveable!What's so bad about perpetual twilight?"

"Midna, this is no time for levity," Zelda scolded. "The shadow beasts have been searching far and wide for you. Why is this?"

Midna responded to the question by removing herself from Link's back and floating up to sit cross-legged in the air, her back to Zelda. My own attention sharpened upon the _actual_ Twili Princess as Link lightly shook himself all over.

"Why indeed?"Midna shrugged, as if she had not a care in the world. "You tell me!"

Zelda sighed a little, a familiar, exasperated sound that would have made me grin were I able.

"Time has grown short, she said, glancing at the clock over her mantle. "Soon, the guard will make his rounds. You must leave, and quickly."

Midna's landing on Link's back was less than gentle, but she ignored the glare he turned upon her by twisting around as though she was concerned about the guard as well.

" _Just ignore it_ ," I told him, standing up and shaking out my fur. " _She wants to annoy you with that move_."

" _It hurts!_ "

" _Yes, I kind of guessed that. But come on. Zelda's not wrong about this. The sooner we leave, the better._ "

" _What about a way down?_ "

" _This one's compromised. But I know a few others. We'll have to travel the roofs for a bit, but we can get down._ "

The conversation that would have taken minutes for a human took moments for the animals we were. With a glance back at the princess, Link followed after me, and we hurried down the stairs... at least until the door at the base creaked and thumped open, forcing us to pull to an abrupt halt. With no words exchanged, Midna and I had the exact same thought, and our entrance rapidly became our exit as well.

Back into the rain we went, though Midna was actually nice enough to float up and scout to ensure that nothing would just up right out of the door. She then bounded off with enough levity that I felt irritated, but that didn't last long; her thoughtful floating pose suggested that she really was thinking about, possibly _worrying_ about, Zelda's situation.

" _What do we do now?_ " Link asked.

" _This whole situation is a mess,_ " I sighed. " _Let's see what she's thinking so hard about, shall we?_ "

Lightly crossing the roof peak was no trouble when one possessed claws. The minute we got close enough, the seriousness vanished from Midna, and she spun on us with a grin and giggle.

"So, you understand now, right?" she asked, her voice light and playful. "I suppose a promise is a promise, and I should let you tumble out of the twilight now, shouldn't I?" It was clear she was addressing Link here, sparing not even a glance for me. "Or... perhaps I shouldn't? Aren't you forgetting something important?~"

In the blink of an eye she transformed; once to the form of a young boy who's name I learned was Colin, then that of a young woman, Link's closest friend, Ilia. Both times she let out a cry of fright, and Link growled, his hackles raising. I could have groaned; this manipulation was blatant, and who was to say that Midna could help with the kidnapping anyways?

"Do you want to save them?" she asked silkily. "Well, little Midna would be quite happy to help you... As long as you're willing to be my servant, and do exactly as I say."

Her sheer cheek and arrogance had me hissing my own anger, puffing up slightly.

"I know~ I'll let you go back, and have some time to think about it. My little kitty here can even help you out!"

And with that abrupt comment, we were teleported away.

When light and sound returned, I was stunned to realize she had dropped us right into Ordona's pool. With direct contact to a spirit at last, I could feel a semblance of strength flowing into my tired body, a silent greeting from the spirit itself.

"Oh, I forgot to mention~ It's not likely that you'll be able to change back from your beast form any time soon! I wonder why?~" Her laugh echoed briefly, then cut off into silence. "See you~"

Link whined a little, and looked at me.

" _What do I do?_ "

" _...I don't know. But let me try something._ "

What rang true for Link was not so true for me; Hero he might be, but Link is not what anyone could even kindly call a mage. He can use magical items, to be sure, but he cannot cast magical spells using his own internal power, and thusly, he could not change his own spell.

I, on the other hand, have never been anything but. A spell worked upon me can also be undone _by_ me, if I have the time and the energy with which to figure it out. Under the influence of the twilight, with only one spirit left to bolster my energy, I could not have maintained my human form in that realm. I was _lucky_ to maintain an animal form, and not be relegated to an unknowing spirit like the rest.

But outside the twilight?

It still took me an almost agonizing amount of effort to transform back, and when I did, I immediately regretted it; the feline form was not bound by the same laws; it was almost completely mortal, no magic at all. Me? I'm as much magic as I am flesh and blood, and I was not prepared for my own weakness. I sprawled in Ordona's pool, barely managing to roll onto my back so that I didn't half-drown.

Link yelped a little, then whined and pawed at me anxiously.

"S... It's all right," I grunted a little. "I'm okay, kid. Just... tired."

Tired was an understatement, not the correct word at all, but about as honest as I could be in the moment.

"Look... I need a few minutes to recover," I said. "Go... check on your village. See if any of the kids might've made it back on their own. I'll stay here and let the spring waters help me."

He whined a little again, but I managed to sit up enough to give him a firm push.

"Huh. So _yo_ _u_ can change back? I guess you're not so useless a kitty after all!"

I jumped a foot, and we both looked around for the voice; Link's shadow seemed to detach itself from the ground, and reformed into Midna... only not fully formed, the way she had been in the twilight. It was as if now _she_ was the spirit.

Upon reflection, it made sense; a twilight being isn't used to direct sunlight, if anything, sunlight would have injured them badly, if not outright killed them. Suddenly, the draping of twilight over Hyrule made a lot more sense... but it still felt like the hand of Ganondorf was upon everything. Something just wasn't adding up...

"What, did you _really_ think I was gone?" she laughed a little, derisively. "Look, whatever you miht be thinking, you can't just rush off and save everyone anyways. The land beyond this one is covered in twilight, after all, and it's as solid as any wall. The only way either one of you can get in is if you have the cooperation of someone _from_ the twilight."

"Like you," I finished flatly.

"Oooo, you _are_ smart!" she grinned. "Looks like you really don't have a choice about doing what I say, huh?~ I mean, saving those friends, that depends on actions. Plenty of people can _say_ things, of course..."

"All right, all right, you can quit beating the dead horse," I snapped, running a hand over my face wearily. "What? What do you so badly want right now?"

"A sword and shield that suits me. I'm _sure_ you can find something like that, can't you?~"

She laughed again, and vanished, Link's shadow returning to the ground where it had laid. I groaned a little, and sat up the rest of the way, not sure at all of my balance, but knowing that we had little choice in the matter. To my surprise, Link stopped me from getting up all the way, by simple process of standing over my legs.

"...I should rest," I admitted reluctantly. "I'm in no shape to help right now. _Can_ you find these things on your own?"

He nodded very emphatically. Despite myself, I felt a slight quirk at the corner of one mouth in amusement.

"And you're okay to do so?"

Another very firm nod.

"All right. I'll wait here. We'll find a way to help your friends."

A very doggy grin was my response, and he trotted quickly out of the spring, leaving me to the silence. It was still a tense silence, however; no birds sang, and as the night fell, no owls called. There was only a slight rustle of animals in the brush, all furtive silences and waiting.

I hate waiting. I am very _good_ at it, but when things start to move, waiting and not knowing rarely helps. Since there was nothing I could do in the moment to help, I turned my mind to figuring out a plan.

Whoever had taken the throne room with the shadow beasts, he was very powerful. Backed, no doubt, by Ganondorf's Power; that would make things tricky, because whoever he was using as a puppet was only that. Ganondorf was not one to remain in the shadows for very long. His ego was _much_ to large for _that._

What's nice about Power is that it's pretty straightforward. At least it is in Ganondorf's hands. He's a bludgeon more than a needle, so it's somewhat simple to plan accordingly. My wrench in planning was Midna. Her motivations were suspect; who was to say that she didn't allow this 'king of the twilight' to lead the invasion so that she, the princess, could commiserate, and ease her way into Zelda's good graces?

Paranoia it might sound like, but when you live over centuries, you see patterns. This wasn't the first time I'd seen a move like that, only the first time I'd seen it on such a grandiose scale.

The flaw, of course, was that she had clearly been looking for someone like Link. Or myself. Perhaps even both, I could not clearly understand. Link was an instrument of the goddesses, more or less, and anything that felt 'not right' to him would be refuted. While he had stoutly objected to being ridden like a horse, he hadn't _actually_ objected much to her.

I frowned thoughtfully as I finally managed to get to my feet.

 _Ordona?_

 _I am here, my mother._

 _What do you think of the imp?_

The spirit, invisible and intangible, hesitated markedly.

 _I cannot be sure, my mother,_ was the eventual reply. _Her spirit is burdened, and a magic has been worked upon her, one that we could not break even at full strength._

 _Do you think she's trustworthy?_

 _...My mother, I cannot say._

I sighed, but it was resigned, not annoyed; it wasn't Ordona's fault. While they were far more powerful than I, they were not _all_ powerful. I decided—reluctantly—that I would have to see for myself. At the moment, she had not made the best starting impression; she was arrogant, and manipulative. She wanted what _she_ wanted, regardless of other people.

After a moment I realized that she was exactly the sort of spoiled princess I had seen before. And I knew how to handle spoiled princesses.

As Link returned, the sudden oppressive weight took a hard upswing, silencing the sounds of the night completely. I waved him closer, and as he passed into the spring itself, six black pillars dropped to the earth behind him. Six more dropped behind me, and they became almost instantly charged with a dark magic to form a glowing red barrier that locked us in.

 _My mother, a shadow beast!_

I looked up, drawing my sword on reflex as a portal formed. The shadow beast's landing was not necessarily graceful or elegant, but it righted itself quickly, one long arm lashing out at the two of us. Link yelped and jumped to the left, I ducked and rolled to the right, keeping my sword between me and the creature.

It didn't know which of us to focus on, and exhausted or not, this was good news for me.

"Harry it!" I called across to Link. "Get its attention!"

He couldn't have questioned me, but I was glad that he didn't hesitate either; given direction, he lunged in low, snapping and snarling at the beast. It turned immediately towards him, and reared back to try and strike him again.

I did not waste the moment, darting in and stabbing the creature in the back, straight through. As I yanked my sword out, it collapsed, and then seemed to explode into motes of darkness that faded away into the night. I could feel the change in the air, however; it had left some sort of mark where it had fallen... and that would take time to fade. But for the moment, the spring was safe. I sighed a little as the stone pillars and barrier faded away, then sheathed my sword, and nodded a little.

"Well done. Ordona. It is safe to come out now."

The entire clearing came to life with light that started green, then shifted swiftly to golden. As though someone had dropped a stone in the water, it burbled up, and the corona of light resolved itself into an orb. Ordona's curved horns faded in first, then the rest of the goatlike body, and last the great, spadelike tail.

I glanced over at Link and had to stifle a snicker; his mouth was hanging open in awe.

~ _My mother,~_ and the spirit bowed its head slightly. ~ _Brave youth.~_

"Ordona, this is Link. Link, this is Ordona," I said, reaching up to lightly touch the spirit's nose. "One of the guardian spirits. Ordona. What's going on?"

~ _The shadow beings are the ones who have stolen the light from my brethren_ ~ it said, inclining its head in greeting to Link. ~ _Faron hoped that by showing the power it possessed, they would be destroyed, but the shadow beasts overwhelmed, and the light was lost._ ~

I grimaced; that did explain a lot. Like the three goddesses that inspired them, three of the four Light Spirits embodied the pieces of the Triforce. Lanayru was wise; they'd have had to take it by surprise. Eldin was powerful, but like Faron, courageous and a touch foolhardy, if overwhelmed, could be taken.

~ _Because of this, Hyrule has been enveloped in a cursed darkness. And I can feel that it will not stop here; if not challenged, the entire world of light will fall,piece by piece, to the king who rules the twilight._ ~

I nodded a little, frowning. It was interesting phrasing, and suggested again that Ganondorf was puppeteering who ever _thought_ they were in charge. Not surprising.

"We need to revive the other Light Spirits for two reasons," I said after a moment,looking down at Link. "Firstly, it will break this twilight king's hold on Hyrule, and secondly... Well, let's go with saying that I'll benefit from it."

He looked up at me, then cocked his head slightly. A question, I hoped, for I was going to treat it like one.

"The alliance with Midna means that we can get into the twilight. While they can clearly hurt the spirits, the only thing that can actually destroy them is a goddess. So they're still around to be saved. We'll just have to figure out how when we get there. And, with any luck, by returning Faron to what he was, we can undo the transformation that's come over you."

A whine this time.

"Spells like this transformation aren't my specialty. I could undo mine because it happened _too_ me, and even then I almost couldn't. I needed Ordona's help. If reviving Faron doesn't turn you back, the power of two is still greater than that of one, and I'll make an attempt at returning you to human form then, okay?"

He cocked his head the other way, then nodded.

~ _Good luck to you, brave youth, my mother._ ~

And with that Ordona vanished back into being invisible and intangible, the light of day fading back into the silvery moonlight. I sighed a little, and ran a hand over my face, then finally sheathed my sword.

"Okay. Back into the twilight we go."


	5. Four

Four

There is nothing as unsettling as a giant hand. It's why the wise fear Wallmasters and Floormasters, and not just because those things can ruin your entire day by tossing you around. At least with the giant disembodied hands, one can slay them... Not so much with Midna.

We approached the twilight cautiously, at the far end of the bridge that separated Ordon province from Faron. It remained at the far end of a narrow canyon, held back by the power of Ordona, but that black and gold wall of twilight was intimidating just the same.

"Oh, look," Midna said, somewhere between sardonic and subdued, "the woods you know so well, little wolf, all covered in twilight. Are we ready to go then? You might not be able to return..."

I glanced at Link; he nodded.

"We're ready," I told her. "Let us in."

She turned, vanishing through the wall like it was nothing more than water; the thing that emerged, rapidly grabbing first Link, then myself, was a giant hand the same color as her hair.

Hence my comment about unsettling giant hand.

Once back in the twilight, under the weight and pressure, I lost my hold on my human form; this time I didn't fight it, and it hurt much less to change into the small sand cat. As I shook myself settled my fur, Link took a few steps forward before he registered the weight of Midna on his back. When I looked up, I was treated to one of the more absurd sights I'd seen in a good long while.

The shield was, for some reason, on her _face!_ And she held the sword with a beginners inexpert hand, where it was more luck than skill that she didn't hurt herself or us.

"So _these_ are the weapons of your world?" she asked, her voice doubtful. "You really think they can slay monsters of twilight?"

She swung the sword wildly a few times, forcing Link to duck; I jumped out of the way, hissing a little.

" _She has no idea what she's doing..._ " Link's voice was surprisingly huffy. " _At this rate, she's going to hurt us!_ "

" _Probably. But she wanted them, for whatever reason. Maybe she'll surprise us?_ "

He growled a little at her recklessness, then huffed in surprise as the shield landed on his face, and the sword, point down, in the dirt. I bristled a bit more myself; that was no way to treat such things.

"Whatever. I won't use them, but I guess I can hold onto them for if you get your body back," she said dismissively. With a snap of her fingers, they vanished. "Well, a promise is a promise, and since you did _try_ , I suppose I'll help you. But you'll need to get a few things for me."

He made a grumbling sound under his breath, and she sighed a little.

"Look, I can't tell you all the details now, but don't worry, it'll be easy."

" _Will it?_ " he asked, glancing at me.

" _No. No it won't,_ " I sighed. " _But I think I know what she wants. If I'm right, I know where to find them, and how to undo the seals on them._ "

"Hey, do you hear that?" Midna asked, going from serious back to levity again. "That sound in the air? That's the lament of the spirit who's light was broken."

It was hard not to hear the sound; it wasn't quite chimes, wasn't quite the wind. It was a discordant, echoing song that had my tail lashing involuntarily as I tried to avoid feeling an echo of the pain.

"Better hurry up and find the spirit's light, it won't be my fault if you're slow~"

" _I wish I could bite her,_ " I grumbled, trotting quickly ahead of the wolf.

" _She might taste bad._ "

" _Still. It might be worth it..._ "

He snorted a little, shaking his head rapidly as if clearing his head. I got the sense that he wanted to bite Midna too, which made me feel a little better about my less than charitable thoughts.

Before we could even get to Faron's pool, more black barrier stone dropped from the sky, and a portal opened, dumping not one, but _three_ shadow beasts in our path. I fluffed up on reflex, jumping back to be closer to Link, who had stopped short with a growl, his hackles rising.

"What, again?" Midna seemed a bit dismayed, looking at the three beasts. "This is ridiculous... Well,I suppose they just don't know who they're dealing with. You certainly don't need _my_ help for this! Bye!"

With that she was gone, vanishing into the trees surrounding the clearing.

" _Well she's no help at all..._ "

" _What do we do?_ " Link asked anxiously.

" _You've got jaws, I've got claws. They have to have vital points. Aim for those._ "

It shouldn't have been a difficult fight, really; between the two of us, nominally used to our animal forms, we could have taken them apart. I jumped on the head of one, beyond the faceplate shield, and dug in my claws, making it rear back and exposing the throat for Link. He jumped and bit, holding on for all he was worth until the beast stopped moving. Rinse, repeat.

Except when the second fell, the third loose an ear-piercing shriek that somehow revived them. Thinking, perhaps, that it was only one of them who had the ability, we tried again. And again.

"Oh, you're both hopeless," Midna sighed in clear exasperation, landing roughly on Link's back. "It doesn't matter which one stays alive, they'll keep doing it until they win! Look, just get me in the middle and I'll make a field of magic that allows you to get them all at once."

Annoying though she was, Midna's spell did the trick; with her help, Link's speed and strength received an exceptional boost, and he practically shot through all three in the space of a moment. With their deaths, the barrier stones vanished, as did the bodies.

" _...okay, maybe she's not so useless after all_ ," I said after a minute.

" _I feel like I'm covered in slime,_ " Link mumbled.

" _Well, you don't look it. Come on, let's see just how badly this has gone._ "

He shook himself a little, but followed as I headed for Faron's spring.

Faron's spring had lost much of its majesty, trapped in this unnatural twilight. The water was dark and cold, with none of the healing properties it typically held, and of the spirit itself... well, there were fragments of golden light, almost indistinguishable from the twilight itself, swirling in the air.

~ _Take care,_ ~ the spirit whispered as we approached. ~ _These woods... have changed._ ~

It cost Faron much to speak like this, and glimmering motes of light faded with every word. I wanted to reach out, to bolster it somehow, but in feline form I could make neither words nor gestures, and the mind-speech was only refined enough to do that; speak.

~ _My light... has been scattered. But can be retrieved. Small... insects absorbed the power... and they yet walk... among the trees. Though invisible to... normal sight, you... can find them._ ~

Something splashed down into the basin, and I moved in quickly; I had used the grape-styled vessel to hold the purest water and power when I had made the spirits, and I could easily collect it again.

~ _This will... contain the power released from the... insects. When filled... Return it to me._ ~

" _Faron, enough._ " I said firmly, ducking my head under the carrying strap and ignoring the water that soaked my fur. " _Conserve your strength. We'll find them._ "

" _What is it?_ " Link asked, curiously nosing the vessel as I did my best to get it onto my back instead of hanging down over my forelegs.

" _It's made to hold pure light in the form of water drops,_ " I told him. " _We find and flatten the bugs, and the vessel will call the drops. When it's full, we come back here, put the vessel back where it belongs, and theoretically, Faron should be restored._ "

Theoretically, of course, was the word of the moment; this had never happened before, so guessing was about all I could do.

If giant hands are unnerving, hunting for bugs was as special sort of annoying. Some of them were easy enough to track down and squish. Others were less obliging and needed to be dug out of the earth, or swatted out of the air. What was worse, the path that would typically be easy to transverse between the wood to the ancient temple was flooded with a foul-smelling mist.

Which meant something had gone wrong with the containment of the fused shadow in the heart of the Deku Tree.

Shadow beasts, naturally, blocked our way to the temple; being useless, I put my jumping abilities to the test and bounded over the barrier, leaving Link and Midna to deal with them as I hurried up the path beyond. This close to the temple, I could both feel and smell the difference; it was no longer the smell of a tree without a spirit, it was the smell of poison, a corrosive acid that would work slowly, but surely until all was decimated.

Bugs I could, and _did_ , kill with my claws. Even as I collected the drops, I listened to the spirit of the monkey that had been frightened by the sight.

" _Ever since the boss went all funny in the head, there's been monsters everywhere...And now the whole forest has gone weird. Maybe it's time to move... Like those kids did, getting out of this forest..._ "

I shook my head a little, mentally filing that away to tell Link, and collected the last two tears, then turned to head back down the path. Link, panting a little, met me at the end.

" _Is that it then, are we done?_ " he asked.

" _Yes. We just need to bring this back to Faron's pool and toss it in the upper ring._ "

It was easy to pretend I knew what I was doing, and fortunately enough, if one _does_ this, then other people tend to follow along with them. I've never been certain of whether that was confidence or just blind luck.

In either case, we traversed the path back to Faron, and I leapt up to the rushing water of the second tier, then wriggled the vessel off and into the water. The change was immediate and welcome, the natural light of day pushing away the dark and blighted twilight. Midna returned to the form of a shadow, leaping clear of Link as he unwittingly changed back, and I regained my own form as well with a sigh of relief.

" _It was so nice here in the twilight,_ " Midna sighed. " _What's so good about the world of light anyways?_ "

I shot her an irritated look, which made her giggle, wave, and disappear once more into the shadows. Pointedly, not sure I wanted to know, I refrained from glancing over at Link.

"Dramatics," I muttered. "Faron, are you restored?"

As with Ordona, the light intensified, even as it softened, and Faron, in the shape of a great monkey with a scorpion tail, appeared around the ball of light that was the true heart of the spirits.

~ _My mother, I am. As are you, as it the brave human._ ~

I turned then, and allowed myself some measure of relief. Link, human again, stood in the ankle-deep water, staring. His gaze shifted between me and the spirit, then back again. I sighed a little, and shook my head.

"Looks like your piece is functioning," I said with a faint sigh, absently massaging my right hand to work out the tingles; it had been much too long since I'd spent this much time around a Triforce piece bearer. "I'm certain that wasn't your original clothing, was it?"

He blinked, then looked down at the green tunic and chainmail, the tall boots and leather belts that secured sword, shield, and pouches.

"W... what? What's going on?" he asked, sounding fortunately stunned as opposed to scare or bewildered.

~ _That green garb was once worn by a great hero, chosen by the goddesses_ ~ Faron said, its voice gentle. ~ _This strength lies within you, and is what protected you from being as a spirit._ ~

 _Faron, are you sure about that?_

 _My mother, I am. The Hero's Courage is awakening, and it protected him from the change, as your own light protected you._

I sighed a little, but nodded.

~ _My mother, brave Link, the dark power that resides within the Old One has been destabilized. I feel that it has found a host, though fortunately, not a mobile one. But it will damage the balance of the forest in due time..._ ~

"I know, Faron," and I sighed again, running a hand over my braided hair. "I was going to go there next."

"The... Old One?" Link asked hesitantly.

"It'd take too long to explain," I replied, glancing briefly at him. "You're going to have to do something very specific, however."

"What?"

"Not touch it."

He blinked, as Faron vanished in motes of glimmering light, leaving the rest of the explanation to me. Which was only fair, since I was the one who knew the most about this nonsense.

"It's called a Fused Shadow," I said, heading out of the water. "And no doubt it's what our shadowy eavesdropper wants."

" _I am not an eavesdropper_ ," Midna said a bit indignantly. " _I can't help overhearing everything!_ "

She popped up, arms crossed and looking huffy. I just shrugged lightly.

"In any case, its a piece of ancient magic that was turned to less than pleasant uses, and normally, I wouldn't unseal it for anyone or anything."

" _But you'll do it for me?~_ "

"No."

Midna sputtered a little, and I heard Link stifle a sound of amusement.

"I'm doing this because we'll have need, _you'll_ have need, of this extra power. I'm pretty sure I know who's really behind all this, and it's _not_ this twilight king, or whatever. If anything, he's a puppet... Ganondorf likes working through intermediaries."

She settled on the air, giving me a stare that was somewhere between hostile and unnerved.

"Link has an ancient power on his side, though it'll take some time for him to understand it properly. _I_ , once my spirits are restored, will have more magic than anyone living. You, however, are at a distinct disadvantage in this world. And it will take all three of us to win. _That_ is why I am willing to return to the Twili, the Fused Shadows."

" _You..._ " Unnerved had won out over hostile. " _Who_ are _you?"_

"My name is Raiha. For the time being, I am willing to be an ally."

I didn't know, or care at that point, if my name had even slightly survived the centuries of change among the Twili. Judging by her lack of reaction, I was willing to suppose not. Which was no great harm, really; working in obscurity is honestly easier than working with great fame and expectations.

"So... uh... where do we go?" Link asked.

"We'll have to find a way beyond the poison fog to reach the Old One," I said as we started walking. "Though I suppose even before then, we should find out who locked the gate to get deeper into the woods. While we could certainly climb over it, it'll be more sensible to go through."

" _Well... get to it then!_ " Midna ordered, vanishing back into Link's shadow.

I rolled my eyes slightly, glanced over, and caught Link doing the same. At least I wasn't the only one feeling put out by her attitude.

"You're looking for your friends, right?" I asked.

"They're all... just kids," he said quietly. "Well, except Ilia. But this has to be scary for all of them; they've never been outside the village before... And everyone at home has to be worried sick."

"When I gathered the last two tears, I overheard a monkey saying that there were children led through the forest. It's likely they're out somewhere on the Hylian Plains at this point. Now," I raised my hand slightly, as the fire of alertness flickered in his gray eyes, "I don't expect you to want to come with me through the Old One. You very much do not have to. I understand that your first wish is freeing these children, regardless of what Midna wants. I also don't doubt that if she were so inclined, she could hide in my shadow instead of yours, freeing you to go looking. _But_."

He looked up at me, all attentiveness.

"Hyrule is big. There's a number of towns, villages, and even small cities. Without help, you could be searching for a very long time."

"But you'd help me?"

I nodded.

"I confess, bulbins taking prisoners doesn't make _sense_ ," I sighed a little. "They don't need slaves, and they don't eat humans. It may very well be that the puppet was given orders to do this to bait you, and try to ensure you, in all your inexperience, came to harm. And you're quite ready to charge off after them now, aren't you?"

He gave me a sheepish look, and I had to stifle a smile. The more things change, the more some stay the same, really. The courage of the hero often does lead him into trouble... but that was what I was there for; to provide direction.

"So, as of now there are three options; one. You come with me now, learn how to use that fine sword strapped to your back, and help me with the damage of the temple. Two, you wait here, or nearby for me to deal with the temple and return, or three, you go it alone and don't wait at all."

He was quiet for several minutes, and I could see the desire to rush ahead arguing with the logical choice. In the end, logic won out.

"I'll stay with you," he nodded a little, looking a bit woe-begone. "But I do know how to use the sword."

"Hmmmm. Well, we'll see. Let's start by finding someone who might have the key to unlock the gate, and go from there."

In truth, the Hero has always been a natural with the sword, but only the basics. And there was so much more than the typical hack and slash to using a blade, especially if he was going to end up needing the Master Sword. Which was undeniable, really, there is no other blade in the world that can actually do damage to Ganondorf.

"Maybe... maybe the lantern seller has it," he offered after a minute.

"Lantern seller?"

"Yeah, he sold me a lantern to help me get through the cave. He's the one who had the bugs in his house."

"Ah, yes," I nodded a little, then paused. "You don't want to go back to your village, and tell them you're all right?"

He shuffled a little, looking embarrassed, and a bit awkward.

"My uncle would... probably be glad I'm okay,but... But I'd feel bad about showing up and not being able to say anything about the rest."

"I see. All right."

Truth be told, it wasn't something I had much of an opinion on. It had been a long while since I'd spared much thought for... well, _anyone_ worrying about me. After all, who could? Zelda? She has a kingdom to run, one vagabond tutor—for I was that when she was young—was hardly someone to fuss over. And my spirits are connected to me; there was no need for their concern.

We made our way past the deku babas with relative ease; the serpentine plants are no match for a stout blade, after all, and entered the clearing where the lantern seller lived. He was sitting outside, before a banked fire, and looked up in surprise as we approached.

"Uh... hey," Link said a bit awkwardly.

"...oh! You're the Ordonian! And you've got a cute girl with you this time too!" I couldn't quite conceal my irritation at being called 'cute'. The seller scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly. "See, your clothes changed, so I was a bit thrown off... But you guys should, y'know, watch your step. Things have gotten really weird lately."

"Weird enough to close the gate?" I asked.

"Yeah... I didn't want something coming through. There's a lot more than usual. You guys though..." And we both got a once-over, a scrutinizing look rather than a lascivious one, which was settling. "You're looking kind armed and dangerous. Are you going to investigate?"

Link nodded, and after another moment, the lantern seller handed over the key.

"Well, the fog's pretty thick too, so make sure you've got a full lantern. Some spare oil wouldn't hurt either, now would it? I've got a deal going, A hundred rupees for a bottle!"

Link glanced at me; I shrugged.

"If you have the money, it'll likely be worth the effort," I pointed out. "Bottles typically are."

"...okay."

As he paid for the bottle, I took the key and went to unlock the gate. The air beyond smelled fusty, with a hint of foul, and it wasn't just the cave; the faintest breeze was carrying the scent of the poison, even if it didn't carry the poison itself. I hoped that, once the Fused Shadow was remanded to Midna's care, the forest would return to normal... but I also intended to hedge my bets as much as possible.

The cavern was dark enough between the torches that the lantern was welcome, and visibility wasn't much improved on the other side. While there had been a bridge at one point, that would have carried us over the fog—remnants of a time when there had been a small lake there—decades of neglect had sent it crumbling. There would be no easy crossing for us.

The fog that had collected in the former lakebed carried a hint of musty purple to it from what I could make out in the low light. Of the scent itself, the less said, the better. Suffice to say it was unpleasant, and very deadly. Without being asked, Link brought out his lantern again, and held it high.

"There has to be a way through," I murmured, eyeing the fog from the edge of the bridge. "Maybe Farore's wind?"

I tested this, sending a small breeze to wend through the mist, but with nowhere to go, it didn't do much beyond agitate it. I frowned a little, then reached out briefly towards Link.

"May I borrow that? I can't quite see..."

He handed it over without a fuss, for which I was glad; I _am_ tallest, so I was able to raise it higher, but more light didn't necessarily help me find a path around. I sighed a little, and passed it back, crossed my arms, and absently tapped a brief staccato rhythm on my elbow. There had to be a way to make a path through the mist that wouldn't be us holding our breaths and running.

Behind me, Link yelped, and the light abruptly moved. I turned, wondering if maybe he'd tripped and flung the lantern—the last thing I wanted right now was a forest fire—then paused in surprise as a monkey with a flower in its fur zipped by, holding the lantern on a long stick.

" _Well now, what's her problem?_ " Midna demanded, popping out with a scowl evident in her voice if not on her face. " _Look at this, you went and lost the lamp because you were-_ "

"Hang on, look."

The monkey waved the lantern over the sickly fog, and the fog... dissipated. Not completely, but it left a good-sized semi-circle of space around the monkey that only slowly filled in. I glanced at Link and raised an eyebrow as the monkey beckoned us forward.

"Friend of yours?" I asked.

"Ah... sort of? Talo... that is, one of the village kids... I mean, the other day before all this started, we were having troubles with monkeys breaking into the storeroom of the village shop," Link stammered a little as we followed the monkey. "Talo decided he wanted to borrow my wooden sword and chase her when he saw her, but they both got snatched up by a couple bokoblin and stuck in a cage. I got them both out..."

"Huh. And now she's paying you back for the rescue."

It was one of those uncanny lucky things that tended to have to incarnations of Link; his good deeds inevitably lead to repayment in sometimes unusual ways. But I was not about to turn down the help.

The monkey did not take as straight a path as I could have wished, and was not so brave as to be able to fend off—or smart as to get out of range of—the few enemies that littered the floor of the small wood. But still, she got us to the other side before dropping the empty lantern and heading deeper into the woods, down the path that would lead to the Old One.

Link scooped it up, then yelped slightly as the hot metal burned his fingertips. I stifled a smile, and just shook my head lightly.

"I'd refill that were I you, and keep it handy. It might be useful later."

He nodded and filled it as we walked through into the clearing that was bathed in a natural twilight, then tucked it away in a pouch. In the moment there was little point in telling him that I could, as needed, cast a fire spell; I was not at full strength, and until I was certain of the recovery of Faron, I wanted to use magic as little as possible. Also to is the fact that to use magic in this world as it is, is to set off a flashbang, akin to a lightning strike; it was not subtle, and it would alert anyone with the ability to feel magic that there was someone powerful around.

I wanted to avoid that for as long as possible.

 _Ordona_ , _Faron, can you communicate with the other two?_

 _Our mother... we can._ Faron said slowly. _But it is not perfect._

 _It is fragmentary_ , Ordona supplied. _Eldin is more audible than Lanayru._

 _If you can, seek the children that Link seeks. Narrow our search._

Their attention withdrew, and I looked up to see a strange, familiar sight.

"...why is there a bridge in the forest?"

It was a fair question; the bridge that spanned Kakariko gorge was _not_ supposed to be standing on end in the middle of Faron Wood. The fact that it _was_ boded ill for our future travel across Hyrule. Link just looked back at me and shrugged a little, confusion clear on his face. After a moment, I sighed and shook my head a little; it wasn't something I could do much about at the time.

As we made our way to the Old One, a new trial crossed our path. Or rather, he crossed Link's; a great golden wolf stood between the Hero and the root-path up to the base of the Old One.

This was ancient magic, but it was not mine; The Hero of Time from centuries past had, at some point, left all his gear in my care, taken new, and then vanished, leaving behind Malon and three children who hadn't entirely understood why their father hadn't ever been able to stay at the ranch. I felt it then, as though I had been kicked in the chest, that this was my missing friend.

My dearest love.

He crouched low with a growl, then sprang at Link, knocking the Hero flat on his back. The wolf vanished then, but he did not leave me; instead he became as a great Stalfos, standing tall... but not so tall as I.

"... _Raiha_?"

I felt my breath catch in my throat, and had to work to stifle the emotional response.

"It's been a long time," I said, maintaining a neutral voice through sheer force of will. "Malon waited for you up until the day she died."

" _I hoped she wouldn't..._ " and his echoing voice was full of regret.

"Why did you leave?"

" _I found no peace in a land that did not recognize its heroes_ " he admitted, and there was lingering sadness and pain in his voice. " _In a land that branded you as a danger despite everything, and had no memory of my own deeds._ "

I flinched a little; I couldn't help it. Though we had indeed saved _this_ Hyrule before Ganondorf could have attacked, his and Zelda's involvements had been quickly downplayed, and mine somewhat... overblown.

"I'm sorry."

" _It's not your fault,_ " he said firmly. " _I didn't want you to know. You had... you have more than enough to worry about._ "

"Link... You are my friend. I should have seen."

" _I do not blame you._ "

I sighed, and let it drop; he didn't have to blame me for me to blame myself.

"What are you doing with the boy?"

" _After I left, I developed a number of sword techniques. If he is to battle the danger we both know is coming, he will need to learn them quickly. I have taken him to a place of timelessness, but it shall only be a few moments here, and I will teach them to him one by one, as he grows in skill and ability. You will train him too?_ "

"As if I could do anything else," I said,allowing my voice to gain a touch of tartness. "I am not entrusting my life to someone who is only just beginning."

He laughed then, as I'd hoped he would. And well he should; I had made the same scathing comments when he was listening to me train his eldest son, who wanted to be an adventurer, just like his father.

" _You have not aged a day_ ," he said quietly, once his laughter had finished.

"No, I have. It's just in the places where no one can see," I replied, just as quietly. "But... I am glad to see you, even if it is in this form. I am sad that you have not moved on..."

" _If he has the potential to learn all my skills... I will be at peace,_ " he said simply. " _But what of you?_ "

"I will find peace at the end of my mandate, my dear one. As always."

He nodded solemnly, then looked down.

" _He is a fast learner, this descendant of mine. That will be of great help. This boy that transforms to a wolf... when you have need, seek the standing stones that sing with the voice of the wind. Call me there, and I will come._ "

And with as little fanfare as he'd appeared, he vanished. A few moments later, Link groaned and pushed himself to his feet, then put a hand to his head as though it ached.

"He said... a sword wields no strength unless the hand who holds it has courage," he mumbled.

"He would. Did he teach you anything useful?"

After a moment, the fog clearing from his head visibly, Link nodded. Then he glanced at me almost shyly.

"He said I should ask you to help train me in bettering my skills between times that we'll meet. Is...Is that all right?"

I snorted a little.

"Regardless of his input,I would have trained you. You are a natural talent, but it's still a rough talent. And you may regret asking by the time I'm done with you." After a moment, I gave him a brief pat on the shoulder. "Come; the Old One and the Fused Shadow await us."


	6. Five

Five

I have never understood what it is about Skulltula webbing that defies the sharpness of a blade. I know why they make their webs large, for they are annoyingly large creatures for the most part, but being unable to cut is something had has never made much sense.

Fortunately, the webbing is flammable, quick to combust, and quicker still to burn out instead of spreading the fire to the surrounding wood.

The Forest Temple has never really been a temple in the truest sense of the word; when Saria was Sage, it was a derelict castle that someone had more or less gone through and booby-trapped. (I still have no idea how those twisted corridors worked... by the time I was in a position to study them, it was long gone.) After the fall of the Great Deku Tree, and the failure for a new sprout to take root—among various other things, not in the least limited to the grand and small shakes that altered the shape of the land itself—the Kokiri had sought to turn it into their last stronghold. Not a place of worship, but a place to live in relative safety, until one by one, they all faded away.

Even without his spirit, the Old One was still a tree. With light, water, and good soil, trees grow. With magic, trees can be coaxed to grow in a very controlled, specific manner. And where the tree cannot be made to grow, there's always woodworking skills from deadfall to make things like stairs and doors.

Of course, the last Kokiri faded out a long time ago, and the fairies retreated away from the forest. Where they went, I've never been terribly certain. I suppose it doesn't matter any more.

In any case, what that meant for us was that the interior of the tree was basically a small village, separated off by paths that had long since fallen derelict. Where trod paths had been, Deku Baba and Baba Serpents grew; skulltula and skullwalltula both spun webs to catch keese and rats, and it was clear that the bokoblin had moved in and seemed to be settling.

Which simply could not be allowed; they were stupid, vaguely vicious things. All it took was for a person to _glance_ at a bokoblin, and they would find themselves under attack. As the forest was too close to the human village, I would have been inclined to eliminate them anyways... the fact that our little helper monkey had been caught by a pair of bokoblin, and stuffed in a cage was just sort of par for course.

As was often the case with these creatures, when they spotted us, they charged, clubs held high. Neither one lasted long.

The cage was a relatively simple one, not to mention flimsy. After studying it for a moment, I reached over and wrenched the top off, freeing the monkey from her confines. She promptly clambered up the vines until she reached the top, bounced up and down in clear glee, then beckoned for us to follow.

" _Well, you're both popular, huh?_ " Midna teased. " _Gonna follow?_ "

I looked at Link, he looked at me. As one, we shrugged, and climbed up to the proper entrance of the former village.

The once impressive door, carved with the ancient Kokiri symbol, had half-rotted away; it was simpler to just break it down instead of trying to force it to open on a track. And the rest of the place wasn't much better; bridges had weathered and rotted away, even inside the tree. Some had been repaired, but the repairs were patchwork at best.

"...well, at least the layout hasn't changed," I muttered, frowning a little as the monkey rushed ahead of us. "I suppose my map should still work here."

"You have a map?"

"Mmhm."

I pulled it out and let him look it over as I contemplated the interior of the Old One with as thoughtful an air as I could manage. Most of what I'd stashed here wasn't terribly important; rupees, perhaps some spare armor that had managed to avoid weathering if I was lucky...

"What's this?" he asked, pointing to a spot on the map that was across a bridge.

"Mmn? Oh. Damn."

"Is it bad?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I'd just... forgotten I left it here. I could have sworn... well, no matter. The Gale Boomerang should come in handy. We should try and get that first."

One of the safety precautions the Kokiri had come up with, when they had seen humans moving in now that the forest could no longer swallow them, were some curious bridges, that required either a stiff breeze, or a wind spell. Or, as in this case, a fairy-infused boomerang. Not something I had made, but I had been given protection of it.

In truth, I didn't _need_ it, so I'd given it to the Kokiri after seeing their wind-bridges. They'd loved it, even if they hadn't known where the gift had come from.

It was one thing to say we could get the boomerang; it was another thing entirely to actually do it. First we had to raise the steps that blocked the way out, then once we got out there, we face a new problem in the form of a barely-held-together bridge. I eyed it with severe trepidation, and tried not to let the bottom drop out of my stomach; that was a _long_ way down if the ropes holding it up snapped.

Link stepped cautiously up to the edge, and looked down,then backed up quickly. Our little monkey guide however, was not afraid in the slightest; she started right out over the bridge, with every confidence that it would hold.

I looked at Link,who looked back at me, and read the same unease in his eyes that I was feeling in my gut. Before the monkey was even a third of the way across, another came from the opposite side, and in his right hand he carried the boomerang.

Our little guide yelped at the sight and scurried back towards us, but the older monkey—he was so large, I assumed he was their leader—hauled back and threw the boomerang in a startlingly accurate arc. It took out two of the ropes, and that was really all that was holding the bridge up; fortunately, our guide had a good grip on the wooden slats, and managed to clamber back up.

The larger, cheeky thing across the way made a sound that was almost a laugh, turned around and smacked his rear in an obvious gesture of contempt, then yelped as I launched a low-yield fireball at him, and scampered before he could get hurt. Link stared at me as I huffed in annoyance.

"...what?"

"That.. what was...?"

"Oh. A fireball. Magic. I wasn't actually going to _hurt_ the stupid thing," I replied shaking my head a little, "but I don't appreciate mockery."

The problem, of course, was overt; our progress forward was blocked, and there were no side tunnels that led across the way. I cast a thoughtful, speculative look at the two guide-ropes that were still intact, until our little guide tugged at the hem of my tunic.

" _Well, you can't go forward with the bridge out, since neither of you can fly_ ," Midna pointed out, popping up again. " _And the monkey seems to want you to go somewhere._ "

"I suppose we should play follow the leader then," I sighed a little. "We'll need the boomerang to bridge the gap to where the shadow is contained anyways..."

Yes, it is true that I could simply have led them there myself, without the mess of following a monkey, but I still wasn't entirely certain I wanted to trust Midna with the Fused Shadow. Thus far,other than pulling out the arrows, she hadn't exactly shown herself to be someone I _should_ trust with that amount of power.

Of course, had I known I was going to let myself in for the monkey rescue mission, I might have reconsidered my stance...

That was, more or less, precisely what we ended up doing. The bokoblin had been busy, it seemed, with locking the monkeys away in cages, likely to be turned into a meal later. We freed three more from their cages, and then all four became absolutely insistent that we return to the broken bridge. I admit, I was uneasy, but feeling moderately optimistic; tile worms, skulltula and big baba aside, this was going with a surprising amount of speed.

Of course, this optimistic view lasted until I realized exactly what the monkeys wanted us to do; it's one thing to trust the monkey to hold you and swing you when there's actual ground maybe fifteen feet total away from where you could land if you miss. It's another thing _entirely_ to trust them to swing and catch across a gorge where one cannot see the bottom. I know there _is_ one, because the trees and rocks descended down into the mist, but I have never actually been down there, and had no desire to fall.

Link, even the optimistic, and foolhardy brave, took a running jump and actually managed to get across. I decided to get across in a slightly less mad method, by climbing up to the guideline, putting a temporary preservation spell on the old rope to keep it from fraying or breaking under my weight, and scooted across hand over hand. The monkeys were quick to get out of the way, and scampered off into the trees beyond once I'd dropped down next to Link.

"If we get the boomerang back from that cheeky little bastard, we won't have to go back that way, at least," I muttered, wiping a bit of sweat from my face as I reclaimed the power I'd put into the spell.

"Are you okay?"

His concern was genuine enough that I sighed, and patted him lightly on the shoulder.

"I'm not the biggest fan of heights. I'm fine, though. Come on, there's a little monkey that needs to learn not to touch magical toys."

He gave me an uncertain look, but fortunately, decided not to press.

This door was actually mostly intact, surprising, considering it was open to wind and rain, and all manner of weather. Then again, with that in mind, no doubt the Kokiri had made it much sturdier. It didn't _quite_ want to roll on its track, but between Link and myself, we managed it, and stepped into a room that had a number of tall, carved pillars.

I recognized the room as the Kokiri story room after a quick study, where they had carved their history into the wood, and told their tales late at night. Each of the pillars told of a particular moment in history where they had done something impressive, or had something impressive done to them. I have to go back and transcribe them at some point...

But I digress.

The cheeky monkey leader was standing on the tallest, at the far end of the room, boomerang in hand. Closer to him now, I could see that there was something half-obscuring his face. A mask of some sort, though what is was made of, I couldn't quite tell. Fortunately, he was _not_ infused with the magic of the Fused Shadow.

But that didn't make him any easier to deal with. Serpent Babas hanging from the ceiling definitely didn't help. Fortunately he could only cut them down a couple at a time, and decidedly _not_ when he was focused on actively attacking either myself, or Link. There were a limited number of Babas too... never have I been more grateful for plants that will devour each other if they're stuck too close together...

My patience for tomfoolery is limited, I will admit. After being hit twice by the boomerang because I was dodging Serpent Baba, I got impatient. The next time I saw the boomerang go flying, I launched my own wind spell to knock it off course, sending it clattering to the floor. The monkey yelled his anger, and jumped down. Whether he was aiming for the boomerang or myself, I am unsure, but his reckless charge launched him headfirst into my fireball.

I didn't want to _kill_ him, but I certainly wasn't about to get run over either; as it turned out, the blast knocked him back against the pillar, and sufficiently charred the bug that had been covering his face so that it peeled off, curled up and died.

Link cheered as I dusted my hands irritably. Dazed, the monkey rolled away onto his hands and knees to catch his breath, then slowly glanced over at us. I watched him warily, but even so, he still surprised me by jumping to his feet... and then running away.

"...I have seen stranger things," I said after a long moment. "But even I have to admit that was a special sort of odd."

Link laughed a little, sheathing his sword, and went to fetch the boomerang.

The Gale Boomerang is as fine a piece of work as I've ever seen a boomerang become. The white wood is carved so that it looks kin to a bird's wing, and there is an emerald instead at the middle, where the magic was pooled.

"It's really pretty," Link said after a moment, holding it gingerly.

"Mm. It's also very useful. Here, let me see."

He handed it over with minimal fuss, and I hefted it carefully; at one time, there had been a fairy's spirit inhabiting the boomerang, but even well preserved, this fairy had abandoned it long ago. Still, it held the enchantment of winds, and I gave it a solid flick; Link jumped about a foot as it spun out, a small tornado twisting the air as it went and scattering leaves and debris before it returned to my hand.

I had to smile, just a little; it was nice to have a magical thing again, especially one that I had not made myself. After a moment, I handed it back to Link.

"Here, you try."

He held it gingerly, the stance of someone who's never had to use a boomerang before in his life. I shook my head a bit, and went about correcting his stance, and his grip... but he still managed to miss his first catch and smacked himself in the face.

It was very very hard not to laugh. I managed it; Midna did not.

" _The monkeys should be happy, and now I get to see something funny!_ " she chortled. " _Win-win for me!_ "

Link muttered something I was willing to pretend I didn't hear under his breath, rubbing his face as he got back to his feet. After a moment, I simply handed the boomerang back.

"Again."

" _Yes, please again!_ " Midna's grin was full of mocking amusement.

The second time he missed, but managed to not get hit in the face. The third time he caught it, and Midna, disappointed at the lack of entertainment, vanished back into his shadow with an almost huffy sound. To make sure that he was really managing it, not catching by luck, he tossed it several more times, without my needing to say so.

It's pleasing when a Hero knows how to make sure they're really capable.

Though the monkeys had gone, we were not left to flounder. If anything possession of the boomerang made traversing the Old One much easier, and faster... as it also helped with rescuing the rest of the monkeys that we found in our path along the way. There were eight in total, and unfortunately for my piece of mind, we needed all of them to bridge the gap where once had been a sturdy bridge.

If I'd had the hover boots, that would have been a saner way to cross, I swear. A giant chain of monkeys was pushing even my limit for the bizarre. Still, they did manage to swing us across... and I have to admit, they looked like they were having _fun_ with it too.

I still needed a good ten minutes on the other side before I stopped trembling. Just because I _cannot_ die dos not mean I take needless risks; I am not a fan at all of pain and injuries that take months to heal, even with magic.

Link, to his credit, did not seemed to be even remotely amused. Sympathetic, mostly. He sat next to me patiently, and waited until I had caught my breath.

"It's beyond that?" he asked.

'That' was a large wooden door, carved with the Kokiri symbol. It still hummed faintly with magic for those with the ability to feel it, and I knew the spells well, since I had been the one to cast them.

"Yes. Just give me a moment more, and we can go through."

I stood up carefully, then moved to put my hands on the door; while the spell had begun with a singsong chant in ancient Gelda, the taking of the power required nothing more than will and physical connection. The power flowed through me, and I shunted it off, passing it back through my connections to Faron and Ordona to cleanse. After so many centuries in close proximity to a strong, Sheikah-styled power, my spell was not precisely _tainted_ , but it was not the sort of power I could immediately pull back in.

It is not a stain, it is not a feeling... it's not easy to explain magic to people who can't use it, but magic simply _is._ At least, for me. I've always had magic, I've always been _good_ with magic, and even as the power faded with the sundering of the Triforce, I retained my skills. Not necessarily all of my _knowledge_ , but then, that it what books are for.

I digress. Again.

The door, with the support of the magic taken away, crumbled away to dust, but that didn't make for a clear path. Roots and rootlets had wormed their way down beyond the ceiling of the tunnel, and neither his sword nor mine, were made for cutting vegetation. Fortunately, roots and rootlets were all they were; nothing else came at us while we worked our way to the heart of the small forest.

The air and water were foul, and could be smelled long before we stepped out of the roots. Link coughed and choked a bit, and I found myself agreeing with him even as I stifled the same reaction; this was _not_ the sweet-water fountain it was supposed to be, the safe place where I had muted the Fused Shadow with Light and the power of Earth.

Stepping out only gave visible confirmation of what I knew; the water was foul, a hideous, poisonous purple that hissed and bubbled. The pure water that flooded in was in no way purifying this, and the grates that had only been meant to slow the water, not pen it in, were in no way capable of filtering the poison out.

I muttered a few choice words and put a hand to my sword as the water itself started bubbling more fiercely; the plant-beast that sprang up was _beyond_ mutated from what it had originally been. If I had to guess, at some point it had been a Big Baba, but it had grown an extra head, and the Deku Like part had become more... serpentine, I suppose. Still with the fangs and jaw of a Baba plant, but not much else.

It certainly was a decidedly unfair, and relatively one-sided fight for a good ten minutes. The two large baba heads were startlingly swift, and being immersed in water made any fire spell particularly useless. While they couldn't quite grab either of us, their heads made for bruising impacts. Trying to stay out of range of the heads only worked temporarily; the middle, the... body? Even after all this time,I'm still not sure what to call that part, but I suppose that'll do. The main body would pull up tainted water, and spray it at us.

What turned the fight in our favor, finally, was the monkey leader that we had helped. Appearing at one side, the brave creature threw bomblings down, and the two side heads snapped at them eagerly,like they were food; damaged from within by the explosive creature, they flopped into the water.

The main body was not so pleased, and flailed from side to side, attempting to hit the walls that enclosed the spring and knock the monkey from his perch. Undaunted, the monkey threw a bombling dead on, stunning the plant so that it flopped awkwardly to the ground, pretty much directly in front of us.

Its 'petals', for lack of better word, flopped back, exposing a glowing core that pulsated darkly. Neither one of us needed to be told that this was the heart of the problem; Link stabbed forward with his sword while I grabbed for the tainted, twisted magic and _pulled_.

One or the other probably wouldn't have done much. In tandem? The strange plant let out a noise that was almost a scream, and thrashed about, spraying tainted water into the air. The monkey booked it, and Link held his shield up, protecting the both of us as I pulled, backed by the power of two of my spirits.

As the shadow came free, the plant withered, then crumbled into dirt and seeds, the fate of all plants. The water cleared, and the foul smell faded away with amazing swiftness as the regular plants did what they always did, and purified. And the shadow hung in the air, glowing darkly. I heard Link catch his breath, but before he could step forward, could do more than look at the dark beauty that was a strange mix of Sheikah and Gerudo, I pushed him back a step.

"Don't," I told him firmly. "This isn't a power someone like you can manage. Midna? Your first piece of three."

The Twili sprang out with a gleeful laugh, gathering it to herself.

" _You really_ did _know what you were talking about! If you know so much, you're going to be more useful as a guide than I thought~_ "

I just rolled my eyes slightly.

"Just be careful with it," I told her. "Each piece is stable on its own so long as you don't play with them too much."

" _You know where they other two pieces are, then?_ "

"I do."

I'd sealed them, after all, but keeping that fact to myself seemed prudent. I had already unnerved her once, and as irritating as her superiority was, given a context of challenge, it was easy to admit that it might well be a cover for the truth of who she could be. That and it was just... habit to be laconic abut myself at this point.

" _Well then, you'll have to lead the way!_ "

"What _are_ the Fused Shadows?" Link asked.

"That's... a long story," I said slowly. "Ask me again later."

" _Or maybe I'll tell you after we get the other two,_ " Midna said with a sing-song note in her voice. " _In any case, we're done here, right? Let's quit wasting time and go get the other two pieces already!_ "

She gestured, and opened a warp point; it wouldn't stay open long, her magic and the world of light did not necessarily get along, but it provided a quick—if slightly unnerving—way out that didn't rely on monkeys or our own two feet.

We ended up deposited neatly next to Faron's spring as true twilight became dusk.

"We might as well camp here for the night," I said with a slight shrug. "We've done for the moment what we needed to do for Hyrule, now it's time to care for ourselves."

"But... shouldn't we...?"

"There's no point in rushing off with a head muddled from lack of sleep," I informed him tartly. "That's one of the quickest ways to get hurt. It will take a few days to cross the plains as it is, and-"

 _My mother, news!_

I paused for a moment, and tipped my head slightly, then nodded.

 _Tell him in the morning, Faron. Not now. He really does need rest._

"And you're all done in," I finished, frowning at Link. "Check those pouches, you should at least have a bedroll."

"Wh... how?"

"Magic, of course. Look, just put your hand in one and focus on it. You'll see."

The look on his face had me turn away to stifle a grin; magic was such a useful thing.

Camp was set up in short order; a small fire was easily accomplished in a non-magical manner, and over it I hung a pot of water from Faron's spring into which I dropped a ball of dried vegetables and noodles. I laid my bedroll closer to the water; Link, after some uncertain fussing, put his at something of an angle, so that our heads would be close enough to talk if necessary.

And then, while the food cooked, I tested his swordsmanship. We used long sticks instead of live steel, but the result was about what I expected; he was skilled, and had groundwork in the basics—he told me a man named Rusl taught him, and I had to admit that I could find little fault with his teaching—but he was not to the level of exceptional he would _need_ to be if Ganondorf ever stepped into the foreground of this farce.

I worked him harder than his teacher ever had; he almost didn't have the energy to eat before he curled up into his bedroll and passed out.

" _What are you then?_ " Midna asked peering at me from Link's shadow. " _You know the Fused Shadows, where to find them, and how to unbind them from their containment. I mean, I probably could have done that, but..._ "

I slanted her a brief, sideways glance as I finished off the soup, and banked the fire, putting things together for a pease porridge that would be breakfast. Trying to decide what to say, and what not to say, was difficult.

"I'm someone who has to fix something I allowed get broken," I finally said. "More than that, I will not say."

" _I could command it_."

I snorted a little.

"Little princess, you can waste your breath all you'd like, there's some things that I just won't say," I said tartly, making her startle. "Oh yes, I know what you are, both racially and authoritarially. Your attitude is too spoiled to be anything less than nobility, and you share overt characteristics with the Twili creatures we face. Even if that much wasn't obvious, your magic is a far cry from the twisted stuff that brought down my spirits, but the undertone is very much similar."

" _If you know I'm royal,then you should be more deferential._ "

I snorted a little.

"Yeah, no. You're not my princess. If the shadow beasts are seeking you, there must be some reason; why not tell me that, if we're plumbing for deep secrets?"

My response was a narrow-eyed stare, and a huff, followed by her vanishing. Which, really, was exactly what I'd hoped she'd do.

When I don't want to talk about something, but someone persists, there are a few ways to derail them. I can ignore the question, lie, or divert the questioner by asking to trade secret for secret. I don't generally like to lie, as then I have to keep track of what I've said, so typically I do the first or the last, depending on how insulting I feel like being.

Given that I was not yet certain about trusting Midna, I had chosen the option I knew would end in her retreat for the moment. Once I was certain she was genuinely going to leave me alone, I curled up in my own bedroll, and stared upwards at the stars through the screen of leaves.

 _They're safe?_

 _For the moment, my mother, though Kakariko grows more dangerous by the day. Eldin province still weeps under the twilight mantle._

 _Not surprising. Until we can retrieve Eldin's light fragments, it's libel to remain so._

 _My mother, why did you wish for me to not inform the Hero?_

 _Because he's a Hero, and young._ I sighed a little, wriggling a bit to get more comfortable. _If informed that his friends are beyond the Hylian plains, in Eldin province, he'd likely try to rush right off and help them. He can't do that if he's punch-drunk tired from lack of sleep. The plains have their share of dangers, and we'll be heading right back into the twilight as it is. The more rest he gets, the better. He's only mortal, after all._

There was silence from the spirit then, and a sense of reluctant acquiescence. And since that seemed to be the end of the discussion, I too, went to sleep.


	7. Six

Six

Link, I discovered, was someone who was up with the dawn. It wasn't particularly surprising, considering the lifestyle he'd lead before the transformation; ranchers might not rise as early as farmers, but it was close.

He didn't wake up before me, but he didn't sleep long after I started my morning practice;I felt him watching me after a good fifteen minutes of work, and paused briefly to glance over at him.

"You too. Practice what you know. Then breakfast, and we'll be on our way."

I'm going to have to remember to teach the next hero myself. While I don't fault Rusl in his skill, it was all very workmanlike. In most fights a Hero enters into—in most fight _I_ end up in—versatility is key. Flexibility, and the chance to divert into another attack on the fly was... well, not something he was good at.

Yet.

After breakfast, we packed up the camp; Link was rushing a bit in his eagerness to move on, to try and find the children of his village.

Fortunately, Faron knows precisely when and how to make an entrance. In this case, the air grew warmer, the light grew brighter, and though the spirit itself did not appear the voice echoed in the air around.

~ _Brave Hero, on your journey, be cautious. Though you have claimed the first shadow, the land of Hyrule is not yet saved from twilight's spread. You must now head east, to the lands of Eldin; therein lies those you seek.~_

Link made a faint sound that was somewhere between anxiety and relief.

 _~But be warned, those lands remain yet under the cover of the twilight,~_ Faron continued. ~ _If you step beyond that curtain, your form will revert to that of the wolf. Be ready.~_

With that, the clearing faded back to normal. Link let out a slow breath, and looked far more relieved than he had the night before.

" _Well,that's lucky,_ " Midna said, popping up with her typical lack of fanfare. " _That should make your search easier. You'll obviously want to help the other light spirits, won't you? Well, I suppose I can take care of you again when that time comes!_ "

"We'll have to get there first," I interjected. "In good weather, it takes four days to get to Kakariko, and that's on foot. And if twilight covers the whole of the province..."

I paused. Frowned. Pulled out my map and did a quick check.

"We should find it right around here. Two and some days away from us."

" _Well then, you'd better get moving, huh?~_ "

She laughed, vanishing back into Link's shadow as I rolled the map back up and put it away again.

"It really takes that long to travel?"

"Dependent on the weather, but... yes. It'd be faster with horses, of course, but with the dangers on the plains, I wouldn't want to leave them standing around. Bokoblins, bomskit, guay, kargarok... not a place to really leave anyone, or anything, alone."

Too late I realized that would include the children of his village, and her turned, setting out immediately with a determined stride. After a moment I sighed mentally, and moved to catch up.

Initially, I caught up mostly because I wanted to see his face when he saw how vast the lands of Hyrule were; instead, I felt as though my own chest had been kicked, seeing the unnatural twilight against the blue of the early summer sky. It stretched from one end of the realm to the other, golden and black.

I did not betray my shock, but it was a close thing. Around both the Hero and the Princess, my guard has always... lowered. They remain yet part of me, even if I cannot stay with them.

One day.

At any rate, we turned east with a matched determination to see this wrong righted.

Crossing the plains towards my province, it fell to me to set the limits of how fast we traveled; if I had not, he likely would have gone tearing across at his fastest speed, forgetting to eat, plausibly even forgetting about rest. Link certainly wasn't pleased when I enforced the fact that he needed them both, though he certainly approached evening training and morning practice with enthusiasm.

It was strangely different to approach the twilight out on the plains; though we entered a small canyon, there was still far more sky visible than there had been when we had approached Faron province from Ordon. Even eager to find the children, Link's steps faltered as he approached that darkness.

" _It might be a while before you can change back if you go in there,_ " Midna pointed out as we paused a few feet from the manufactured darkness. " _I'd make any plans you need to now, just to make sure._ "

It was a good suggestion, so we pulled back a bit to where there was still some sunshine, and I pulled out my map again.

"Kakariko, where Eldin's spring is, is here," I said, pointing to the village on the map. "It's small, but there are a few people that won't be totally useless to us once we raise the curtain. I don't know how fast we'll travel on four feet, but on two, it would still take another couple days."

I wouldn't say it aloud, but I was worried for the Gorons. Prideful and stubborn they could be, as stubborn as the mountain they lived on. While they were usually happy and gentle, they had a very bad habit of internalizing when it came to problems among their people, and despite the fact that I had given as clear a warning as I could, I had to wonder if the current Patriarch, Darbus, had actually heeded that warning.

" _It only takes so long because you have to go so slow,_ " Midna pointed out.

"You would rather someone pass out from exhaustion, or get mortally wounded for speed?" I retorted. "There's a reason for the pacing, whether it's one you like or not. _We_ are mortal, and mortals require food and sleep."

I wondered then, what Midna might eat; she couldn't fully manifest into our world, after all... was it the twilight that sustained her? I never did ask, so I've never learned the answer; at the time, I decided it wasn't something I needed to know, and rolled up the map.

"The Gorons are the ones that guard this piece of the Fused Shadow, but it's likely they'll be... difficult about it," I continued. "It may take some tricky negotiation to even get up the mountain path. But. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Link nodded, and we both headed for the twilight wall.

" _Ah, ready at last~ Let's go then!_ "

Midna practically dove through the wall, making it ripple, before her hand swooped out to snatch us both into the shadows with her.

The transformation was quick for the both of us this time, and Midna grinned as she landed on Link's back once more.

"Now remember, you're listening to _me_ here," she said, patting him lightly with both hands, then glancing sidelong at me. Then she smiled and leaned back to glance up at the sky. "And under such a lovely twilight sky too. Isn't it beautiful?~ Not to mention the both of you look better in fur than you do in those dusty clothes."

" _I think she just likes the fact that we can't talk back_ ," I said dryly to Link as we started walking.

He snorted a little, and I could see laughter in his wolf-gray eyes.

We hadn't gone more than a few feet when we caught our first clue that Faron had indeed been correct about the children. A wooden sword, made more for a young adult than a child, lay broken in two in our path.

" _That was my sword!_ " Link exclaimed, rushing forward. " _I let Talo borrow it to distract him from being mad about Colin telling his dad they'd run off into the woods!_ "

Without being prompted, he stuck his nose down by the blade and started sniffing around. Curious, I did too, and picked up the scent of Ordonian fields, as well as four very distinct ones; a cheaply made sort of floral perfume, baby powder, the smell of wood and water, and a slightly fishy smell that also carried sword oil.

" _It's them!_ " Link enthused, dancing in place. " _They're all alive!_ "

" _And judging by the lack of blood, unhurt. This is good. If we follow the scent, we may well find them._ "

"You can smell your friends huh?" Midna asked, smirking a little. "See, I told you that being a wolf was much more useful than being a human!"

Link was off like a shot as she finished, following the scent eagerly. His abrupt break into a run had caused Midna to yelp, almost losing her seat before she gripped his fur in both hands. I loped along beside, and snickered mentally; it would have been funny to see her fall, but even watching her lose her balance amused me.

We covered the distance between us and the gorge at as fast a run as we could maintain; it's hard to tell time with a permanent twilight, but I thought it took us around five hours, which is about the speed of a trotting horse. It would still take us time, but I was slightly hopeful that it would be _less_ than I had feared.

Our first obstacle became abruptly clear as we reach Kakariko gorge, and Link skidded to a halt. True, the trio of shadow beasts didn't last _long_ , but it was plain they had been laying in wait. Once again I wondered just how safe it was to help Midna, and if I was really doing the right thing by letting her have the Fused Shadows... but there was little choice.

Beyond them, the bridge was clean gone. Not broken, or burned... it was gone as though someone had simply picked it up and moved it somewhere else. Link whined a little in his confusion and frustration, and I ended up staring at the gap with a feline frown.

"I bet this was _their_ doing," Midna said in legitimate disgust. "How annoying. It would take much to long to create a new bridge..."

" _Not to mention tools and craftspeople that we don't have_ ," I muttered.

"I suppose we'll have to look for the one they took. Didn't we see something that looked like a bridge back in Faron province?"

Link's ears, which had been laid back, perked up, and he turned his head to look at her. I thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Well, I can teleport us back there! You'll have to do the finding, though." She glanced at me, and then laughed. "Every time we kill some shadow beasts, they leave a mark on the world. A portal. I can feel it, and I can take us right to that spot!"

That was useful. More than useful, it was necessary, especially later in the venture. Her sly smile indicated that she knew very well that I was impressed, even if I tried to maintain a semblance of indifference.

"So, let's go search Faron province, and see if we can't find what we're looking for, hmm?"

Instead of waiting for a nod, she simply moved us. We ended up in the woods again, a few steps south of the Old One, and Midna seemed quite pleased with herself.

" _See? It's easy! Most can't leave so simply, so you'd better be grateful!_ " she boasted. " _Now, find that bridge!_ "

I shed the feline form, pulling out a map to mark down the places where shadow beasts had fallen; it was one of my spares, and I had a feeling that we'd need this information later.

" _What are you doing?_ "

I glanced up to see the twili shadow peering over my shoulder. Link was sitting directly in front of the bridge already, tail tip patiently dusting the ground. By luck, or memory, Midna had dropped us directly where we needed to be.

"Marking portals. This way, when we need to use this talent in the future, we'll have a way of knowing specifically where we need to go. Once we get back into the twilight, you can keep it, and mark new portals as they're made."

" _Hmm... all right, that's helpful. Are you done yet?_ "

There were only four portals at the moment, so after checking that I'd gotten the approximate placement as close as possible, I folded it back up.

"Yes. Link? Could you hold this for me while we return to the twilight?"

He cheerfully, carefully, took the map from me, and we watched as Midna lifted the bridge up from where it had been dropped. I was impressed again, and also pleased; she was skilled in what the Twili magic had become, at least, and even if it took her some effort, it was still not the easiest piece of magic.

I resumed my sand cat form before she grabbed us to teleport along; once back in the twilight, Midna landed us directly on the bridge that we had just replaced, then reached over and took the map from Link's mouth, making it vanish in the same manner is she had with the Ordonian sword and shield.

"All right then, that's all settled. Let's keep going!"

Link wasted little time; on the other side of the bridge, we swiftly picked up the scents again, and he loped off, panting with eagerness. I kept up, but it took some effort; I was not as large as the wolf, nor did I have the same type of stamina.

The black, wrought iron gate stopped us both short. Two shadow-altered bulbin patrolled beyond it, though they paid little mind to us. We were outside the rang of their spears,and the gate, naturally, was between us and them.

" _...this was_ not _here when I came this way to find you_ ," I said after a long minute, trying to catch my breath.

"What's this doing here?" Midna asked, a frown on her face. "Are they trying to keep something in, or something out?"

" _I bet we could dig under it_ ," Link glanced at me with a whine.

" _Okay, I know you're eager, but slow down. I need a break before we do anything else, and a nap wouldn't kill you either._ "

I knew my tone was cross, and I made no effort to hide it; I was _tired_ , and getting hungry as well, though there was little around for a pair of predators to eat. He whined a little, laying his ears flat, but his expression was sheepish, not challenging.

" _Sorry..._ "

"What, we're not going in? Why not?"

I yawned, very overtly, and stalked off to one side of the gate. Link followed, and Midna sighed.

"Oh, right. Fine. Get some rest, then."

" _I wish we could be understood..._ " Link whined a little, laying down against the rock wall.

" _Why?_ "

" _I'm kind of hungry,_ " he admitted. " _And thirsty too._ "

" _Mmn. Fair. I wonder if the bulbin are edible like that?_ "

He stared at me as I curled up into a ball.

" _...I was kidding..._ "

Well, I wanted him to think that, but honestly, I wasn't kidding that much. We _were_ going to need food, and we couldn't always count on only being in animal form for a few days. With the advent of twilight, _everything_ was changed, even the taste of water. We couldn't be certain that _anything_ was edible.

I made a mental note to prepare a bag of food and some flasks of water for the next time we had to go into the twilight; things for Midna to carry. If she wanted us to help, she was going to have to help us in return, after all.

And yes, I was kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner.

We napped in the timelessness of twilight, which did help to restore energy at least, and once we were both awake and had stretched, washed, and scratched, we dug under the gate and darted past the two shadow bulbin on guard into the narrow stone canyon that would take us to Kakariko.

It looked, for all intents and purposes, like a damned ghost town. Not that I could blame the townsfolk much; three shadow beasts patrolled near the Spirit Spring, and I was willing to swear that at least one had the scent of blood clinging to it.

Now, in most cases, I wouldn't have cared; they were already my enemy, and I would have taken them out, regardless of who had been killed.

But I am the duchess of Eldin province. Those lives, those _people_ are under my protection. And Kakariko especially is a place I am intensely protective of; mentors and memories fill that place, as do allies and friends.

Maybe I didn't take any of the shadow beasts down, but I made very sure that they knew what my claws felt like before Link and Midna killed them.

" _Are you okay?_ " Link asked, whining a little as Midna marked down the new portal on her map.

" _I am_ very _upset._ " I said, as if the fluffed-up fur hadn't revealed anything of my emotional state. " _But_ _I'll be fine. Come on. Eldin's waiting_."

Like Faron, Eldin was little more than a collection of weakly glowing motes, collected into a vaguely orblike shape.

 _My... mother..._

 _I am here, Eldin. And I have brought help. I know it is hard, but you must speak._

~ _Hero_...~ Eldin whispered. Its voice was much weaker than Faron's, and I wanted nothing more than to tell it to stop. ~ _You must... gather my lost light... in this._ ~

As with Faron, the vessel dropped from the second tier to the first; this time Link moved in to grab it, though when I moved up, he helped me with getting it on.

~ _Please... move swiftly. The insects of shadow... draw farther and farther away._ ~ Eldin paused, and I could feel it gathering strength. Midna let out a startled noise as her make sparkled briefly, and then glittering points of light settled onto Eldin province. ~ _Your map... will show you the way. But take care... the darkness... hunts you now._ ~

Link twisted his head a little, trying to see what was now on Midna's map, and I stretched up to see as well. Little points of light that moved slightly.

Twilight insects.

I growled a little as Midna shook out the map, glancing it over with what seemed like a new found purpose.

"We should get the ones farthest away," she decided. "And work our way back to the spring. That way we're not going around in circles! So, we need to get these ones first, up on the mountain!"

It was a good plan, if not necessarily easy to execute. Death Mountain was never a particularly _quiet_ place... And listening in on the watching Gorons gave me little hope that I'd find it easy to convince them to let me bring Link in to help with the trouble that they were now facing.

But find the insects we did, and flattened them with a will. At the singing stone Link stopped, and howled with a song that I knew well; even if the wolf's howl could not do more than send an echo of healing into a small radius, I could feel that the song resonated, and from somewhere else, another howl joined his. Again, Midna's map sparkled, and this time when we looked at it, there was a glowing wolf's head just inside of Ordona's spring.

" _Looks like you'll be getting a new sword trick soon_ ," I said as we continued up the path.

" _Hopefully this one won't hurt as much..._ "

I snickered at him unmercifully; my training was not easy, and though it was beneficial, I knew he found it difficult. Not unbearably so, but decidedly tougher than the training he was used to.

As we entered into the area that could logically be considered the Goron village—or at least the outskirts of it—Link stopped short and stared upwards. Death Mountain was an angry red, not too terribly far, though it seemed to be holding off on spitting out rocks and lava for the moment. Metal structures helped shape a path upwards for humans and Goron alike, leading to the meeting chamber, and the path through there would take a careful friend to the mines.

Not that many people actually went into the mines; the Gorons were more rock than mortal it seemed, and the high temperatures and poisonous fumes of working in a live volcano bothered them not even slightly. True, the lava could kill them if given enough time, but Gorons only need to eat and sleep; breathing tends to be... optional. They affect it to put their human allies at ease, but on a whole, what humans need, Gorons tend to be able to do without.

The Gorons found it much easier to do the mining themselves, and then give their human allies the metals to work with. And most humans were content to work this way as well.

" _Impressive, isn't it?_ " I said, my whispers moving forward in amusement. " _The Goron mines are famous throughout the land for their metal. No doubt it's where your Rusl got the iron to forge the sword you use._ "

" _And we have to go in there?_ "

" _Eventually, yes. But for now, our problem lies... there._ "

And he looked down to see four shadow beast prowling the flat area between us and the mines. He growled softly, hackles raising, and leapt down to confront them.

Now, on a given day, the shadow beasts wouldn't have been any sort of _real_ threat to the Gorons; as I've said, they are more rock than anything else, and gentle or not, they will defend what's theirs with blows as hard as the iron they mine. But while they might be able to _see_ the creatures, they had to have learned by this point that they couldn't actually affect them.

Logic might not have always been a strong point among the Gorons, but their Elders had learned to think past their passions, and had no doubt ordered their retreat up to the levels where the beasts could not reach them.

As the last beast fell, I went after the insects, chasing them down with a will; we had already caught several on our way up the mountain, and these were the last two on the map that we would have to catch for this area. Link snapped up one, and I caught the other, then we headed back to clear the village.


	8. Seven

Seven

Blowing up Barnes' workshop was entirely accidental. _Entirely_. The bomb maker's shed usually had the heavily weighted, shielded glass lanterns to provide his light while he looked for bits and bobbles to make new bombs with, but one had fallen over. And since the insect was in the chimney, we figured that smoking it out, like we'd done at the inn, would work fine.

It did not. The bugs lit out from a broken part of the chimney pipe and set fire to the entire place. We had to leave in a hurry, back the way we'd come, and we barey made it safely out of range before the entire thing went up with an explosion loud enough—and rough enough—to be considered a small earthquake.

"...oops," Midna said, sounded a small bit guilty.

True, it netted us a trio of bugs, but 'oops' was about the right word for it. If a vast, _vast_ understatement. Barnes was _not_ going to be happy when he saw what had happened.

There were still a small number to collect; three in Renado's house, and one in the graveyard. Of course,it wasn't like we could just knock on the door and go in; the air was thick with the smell of fear and no one was opening any doors.

" _Let's see if there's a way in through the roof_ ," I said after a moment. " _He was having some work done to put up that bell for whatever reason, and I remember him saying that one of the workmen had broken it._ "

To the side of the house was an old dead tree, and some scaffolding that needed repair. I made the jump easily enough, and with Midna's help, Link made it up too. Their combined weight brought through the wood and straw covering that was keeping the weather out and into Renado's home we fell.

I expected two, maybe three spirits if this was where Barnes had ended up.

There were seven. Renado, his daughter Luda, Barnes, and four children I knew only by scent; Link named them for me, Colin, Beth, Talo and Malo. At the sight of them, his ears went up in clear relief and delight, then lowered as he took in the air, and remembered that the spirits couldn't see him.

" _I don't see em anywhere_ ," Barnes said from his spot by the window. " _Bet they're hidin, lyin in wait for their helpless prey t'come out. Then it's_ feastin _time._ "

I have never liked Barnes. Sure, he knew how to make bombs, and he made them well, but in his heart, he was a coward. Were he around anyone else, or even by himself, it would have mattered less. But there were _children_ there, who had been taken from their home. Beth was already shaking like a leaf, all tense and terrified, and Talo anxiously drew closer to Renado.

" _It is all right_ ," Renado said, his deep voice calm. " _As long as we remain within, we are safe._ "

" _Oh yeah?_ " Barnes scoffed. " _I wonder if those things out there agree with ya._ "

I could have laughed at the sour look Renado tossed the bomb-maker if I wasn't wishing I could shred his leg myself. Even Link was growling a little.

" _They sure weren't impressed by my bombs!_ " he continued recklessly. " _How long do you really think we can hold this place against creatures_ that _strong? Once they attack, it's_ over _. I mean, the general store lady? Had a whole_ group _go try and save her. Totally pointless, since by the time they go there, she was gone and_ two _of those things were out! An then three! You get it? Connectin the dots? If we get attacked by them-_ "

Renado had clearly had enough.

" _BARNES!_ "

The man jerked, and abruptly fell silent, but the damage had already been done. Beth buried her face in her hands and sobbed. Rendao cast Barnes an exasperated look, and the bomb maker turned away, guilty and afraid all at once, drawing down his facemask and shedding a few panicked tears of his own. Luda laid a hand on Beth's back, and sighed quietly as the girl sobbed.

After a few moments, Barnes got hold of himself again, and half crawled towards the shaman.

" _Look, Renado, All I'm sayin is that it's risky here too. Ain't you got some other place we can hide?_ "

Now, I knew that Renado had been constructing a cellar expansion recently; beyond the Oocca owl statue in the current basement. But very few people knew he had a basement to begin with, thanks to the statue that hid the entrance.

" _There is... a cellar_ , " he admitted with reluctance.

" _Whaaaat?! You got us hidin up here when you had a cellar the whole time, man?! Where's the entrance?!_ "

" _Beneath the statue._ "

Barnes headed immediately for the statue, lighting a torch along the way as if that would help him find the actual catch to let one in.

" _I...would not_ ," Luda said cautiously.

He tripped over his own two feet, and almost burned his face. I snickered mercilessly, even though he couldn't hear me.

" _When Father instructed me to secure the cellar, I saw strange beetles, much like the creatures outside..._ "

Having helped put the statue in place, I sauntered over as Barnes crab-walked his way backwards in a blind panic, and ended up smacking flat against the wall again.

"... _Don't cry Beth,_ " Colin pleaded. " _It'll be okay! Link is coming to save us all!_ "

The girl stopped sobbing, and lifted her head a little to glance at the blond boy. Talo and Malo both looked up as well, and I saw hope enter the older boy's face. Colin, for his part, seemed nervous under the sudden attention, and his confidence seemed to wane.

" _I... I can feel it_ ," he finished, stammering a little.

Talo made a dismissive sound, but Beth seemed to be slightly cheered by the prospect. Of the youngest, Malo had a poker fade a Goron could envy. But his eyes were somewhere between afraid and hopeful.

"Awww, they believe in you so much," Midna said with a teasing drawl. "Too bad they can't _see_ you. Oh, but I suppose if they could,you'd scare them just as much,wouldn't you?~ It's only because you're a hero chosen by the gods that you're not a spirit too, or _worse_."

" _You sure you don't want me to bite her?_ " I asked as Link growled a little.

" _...don't tempt me... It wouldn't be nice._ "

" _Well, it's not like_ she's _being nice_ ," I pointed out, slipping my paw into the gap of stone and depressing a small switch.

" _Still..._ "

The statue rolled slightly sideways, not all the way open, but enough that we could slip in; even as we did, I heard the fearful, indrawn breaths that came from the spirits, who saw the statue move...but not the cause of it.

And then down into the cellar we were, with only a small amount of light shed from dying torches. When we caught the three in the cellar, we found a back way out, that lead us to the graveyard, where once had been housed a darkness beyond measure. Now, it was just... graves, and guay, with a back path to the river and Zora's domain, though it was sealed at the time.

We practically landed on top of the last bug, though we had to dig the damned thing out of the ground first. Link's paws were more adept at that, and when it tried to escape by flying up into the air, well, sand cats really do jump quite well.

With the last of the insects caught, we ran back to the pool; again I ignored the feeling of water soaking my fur and jumped to the second tier where I could wriggle out of the harness and drop it back in.

It was light someone had cut through a piece of thin wood; the curtain of twilight melted away, revealing a sky that was just going pale pink with the dawn. I'm not one to believe in omens, but as I regained my human form and splashed down into the shallow pool, I couldn't help but feel... hopeful.

" _And I was just starting to have fun too_ ," Midna sighed. " _Oh well. Don't forget, we have a Fused Shadow to get!_ "

With a giggle and a whirl, she vanished, and from the depths came Eldin.

Of all my spirits, Eldin is the most unique; the form it takes is somewhere between that of a moth, and an owl, with a mask-like human face. I've have never been entirely certain from _where_ the spirit picked up the idea for this shape...

~ _Oh brave hero, chosen by the gods, whose guide is our mother... tread wary upon the peak of Death Mountain, for the power contained there has brought its return to awareness. The mountain lies angry and awake, and if the sacred grounds of the Gorons are not cleansed, it will take more than words can say to stop the destruction that will rain down._ ~

The message passed on, Eldin vanished in a shower of golden light, just as the sun became visible through the canyon.

"Well then," I sighed a little, absently stretching first one arm, then the other as I stifled a yawn. "This should be interesting."

"What should?"

"Were you listening to the Gorons we passed as we climbed the mountain? The protection of Kakariko, specifically, is on them as Kakariko has always been here, at the foot of their mountain and the start of their trade route. Them not being here, them pulling back?" I made a disgusted noise. "That's their damnably annoying pride telling them that 'This is a Goron problem. We don't need humans in a Goron Problem.' Pah."

The words came up unbidden, and carried with them the memory of an angry Darunia, lost now to the annals of time. The father I had never had, the _family_ I had cherished more than anything... Ruthlessly, I pushed the surge away; I could not afford the sentimentality now.

"But... what does that mean for us?"

"Trouble,mostly. I'm known, but you're not. You may have to find a way to prove your strength to them... Mn?"

Dawn was fully actualized now, the sky shading from pale pink into a soft blue, and behind us, the door to Renado's sanctuary had creaked open cautiously. A boy's head poked through the gap, and then the door fell from his grasp in shock.

"Link?!"

Link turned, then smiled broadly, and waved a hand. Colin started forward, but was then knocked roughly aside and to the ground by Talo, who seemed to have no regard for the blond child. I couldn't help but frown at the disrespect, even as the two older children crowded eagerly around Link, Beth bouncing on her toes in delight.

"See Beth!" Talo boasted. "I _told_ you Link would come to save us."

My frown grew more pronounced; this child was still _just_ a child, but his attitude was deplorable. It eased somewhat as the youngest, Malo, gave his older brother a sidelong glance of annoyance.

Colin lifted his head a little, and at Link's smile and nod, got up off the ground and hurried to join the group. I stepped around them, letting Link field the questions as Renado, Luda, and Barnes stepped out into the renewed sunlight.

"Lady, you have returned," Renado gave me alight bow, and a relieved smile.

"Sorry about being late. I had to pick up a wandering hero," I said, smiling slightly back. Then I sobered a little. "And I am sorry for what has happened in the village. It should not have..."

"It is not your fault, my lady. It is what it is."

Renado's pragmatism was soothing, even though he had no way of understanding how specifically wrong he was. Still, that he tried was comforting.

"Link," I interrupted his chatting with the children firmly. He looked up at me almost immediately. "This is Renado, the shaman of Kakariko. Renado, this is Link, from Ordon province. He's been looking for these little ones for the past week."

"Well met, Link," Renado said with a slight bow. "This is my daughter, Luda."

Barnes, being excluded from the greeting entirely, made a faintly annoyed sound, waved a hand in a gestured of defeat, and stomped off towards the town. I allowed myself a mental snicker at his expense, then dismissed him from my mind; he was not, at the moment, important to the discussion at hand.

"How'd this happen?" I asked Renado. "I knew the children had been taken, but how did they end up here?"

"We, um..." I turned, and gave Colin my attention. "The beast, they... they just left us on the plains. I guess to die? But then Mr. Renado found us, and brought us here."

"I was stunned to learn they had come from the Ordona province," Renado said, his deep voice troubled. "To be brought this far, and then simply left..."

It made no sense, unless my theory held water; they had been grabbed as bait for Link. It was just the sort of thing Ganondorf would command, too...

"It... It was like..."

Colin groped for the words. Malo finished his sentence first.

"A nightmare," the toddler mumbled.

"Yeah! Like a really really bad dream, that we just couldn't wake up from!"

Renado nodded a little, then looked at me.

"These nightmares are everywhere, it seems," and his voice was worried. "The day that you left, my lady, all the Gorons withdrew to their mountain, and they have since been overtly hostile, and refuse to allow us to even set foot on the path up to their mines... and then the dark beasts had us all trapped within for several days."

I groaned a little, and rubbed my temple lightly.

"Of course they did," I sighed.

"My lady, is there something you can do?"

"I can _try_ ," I frowned a little. "Stubborn Goron pride is a tricky thing, however..."

And if the mountain was active again, spitting rocks and lava, it would soon be unsafe for the village as a whole. Renado sighed a little, and nodded.

"Then, perhaps it would be best for Link to return to Ordona with the children, before anything else happens."

"...that's easier said than done," I pointed out. "There's always trouble on the plains, Renado, and this recent spate of danger has only made it worse. At the very least, to make the best possible time, we'd need a cart and horse."

And I wasn't eager to lose another week and some herding children back to their families, uncharitable as the thought was. Even with a horse and cart, our direction did _not_ lay back in Ordon province.

"We can't just _leave_ ," Beth protested. "You helped us, we should help you too!"

The boys all nodded, though with some hesitance; I stifled a smile at the girl's strength of mind. Renado sighed a little, but I could see a tiny smile on Luda's face that suggested some pride in her newfound friends.

Curious now, I turned to face the children, all of whom were now staring at me with curiosity more than unease.

"You're old enough that you don't need looking after much, right?"

"Yeah!" Talo proclaimed immediately. "We're big kids!"

Link rolled his eyes slightly, and I coughed a little to stifle the laugh that wanted to bubble up. I made myself _not_ mock the boy... but it was tempting.

"All right then. Renado, since we can't get them out, it's probably best if they remain with you for the time being. Or at least in the village; it should be safe enough now. Link and I can head up and see if we can reason with the Gorons."

"I'm not so sure that is safe, Lady Raiha," Renado cautioned. "Even as old an ally as yourself may be thrown from the path."

"Well, we have to try," Link said, beating me to the punch.

"We do," I agreed. "And we may as well try it now so that we can be certain."

The shaman sighed, but bowed.

"I'd say it's safe enough now that people can stop hiding indoors, but there won't be much trade until we can unlock the gates at either end of the... Oh. Right, that's a problem too."

Link glanced at me, but I shook my head slightly; I wasn't going to explain the locked gates if I didn't have to, since they would have blocked us from coming in. Renado took one look at my face, sighed again, and turned away.

"Come along then, children. Let's go to the inn and see what can be made for breakfast."

He led them off without much fuss, and I breathed a faint sigh of relief, then motioned for Link to follow.

"What else is a problem?" Link asked uncertainly as we made our way through the quiet town.

"The gates. They're locked. Now, I can pick locks, so if you have to go back to Ordon, I can open it, but the fact that we're in _now_ , and it's not unlocked already, would make everyone wonder just how we got in. There are very few people who associate with magic these days, Link, and considering what just happened, I didn't feel the need to frighten those four any further."

He nodded a little.

"Once we see just how bad the Goron reception is, I'll figure out if we need to unlock the gate then or not..."

"What happens if it's really bad? We have to get up there, right?"

"We do," I nodded. "If it's really bad, we'll talk to Renado, and we'll figure something out."

If I'd had my Iron boots, I wouldn't have worried so much; but I'd left them with the Gorons, and at some point, the Gorons had... well... misplaced them. Rather, they had been stolen, and somehow made their way to the Ordonian mayor's family. At the time, I only knew that without them, life was going to be a bit on the difficult side.

I was not wrong either; Link had made the climb up the wire grate faster than I had, and just as swiftly came tumbling back over the edge with a yelp. Instead of trying my luck with the Goron who stood there, I jumped down to check and make sure he hadn't broken anything.

"A weak spirit is no match for the might of the Gorons!" the guard cried. "Understand me? Away with you!"

"How do you feel?" I asked, offering Link a hand once I was certain he wasn't injured.

"He hit me harder than one of my uncle's goat," he said with a groan, as he got up.

"That would be a Goron, yes," I said dryly. "They're as tough as the rocks that spawn them. Well, come on, let's see what Renado has to say."

We didn't have to go far; Renado was waiting at the foot of the path.

"I'm glad you're both unharmed," he said with a faint sigh of relief. "I take it you were refuted?"

"With extreme prejudice," I sighed a little. "Their habit of recognizing only strength is both one of their most annoying, only occasionally endearing traits..."

Link rubbed his aching ribs with a faint nod, and Renado frowned thoughtfully.

"There _have_ been other humans who earned their respect before, as well as their allyship," he murmured. "Bo was one.."

"Mayor Bo?" Link asked, blinking a little.

"Yes," Renado nodded with a slight smile. "The mayor of your town indeed."

I looked at Link, who seemed uncertain, and after a moment I nodded.

"Link, even though you can't take the children with you, maybe you should go back anyways, and talk to him," I suggested. "And you can tell everyone in your village that the children are safe as well."

"What about you, though?"

"I'll stay here, and see if I can't get through those stubborn heads of theirs," I patted him lightly on the shoulder. "And do what I can to stock us up on food and water for later. Speaking of, we should eat, and then provision you for the walk back."

He thought for a moment, then nodded.

"All right..."

Renado led us to the Inn, where the keeper was preparing food now that it was safe to do so again. With our bellies full, and Link stocked with food and water to see him across the plain—the week long journey was not going to be fun, I elected to head down the path with him to unlock the gate.

At least, that was the initial plan, up until a horse came charging through the village, and shed a pair of bulbin from her back. I pounced on the bulbin before they could regain their wits, and dealt with them quickly while Link wrangled the horse back into a calm state. By the time I got back from dumping the bodies in the graveyard—there was no need for the children _or_ the villagers to see them—She was puffing and blowing, but Link was seated firmly on her back, and she was not fighting him.

"Well done," I said with a faint smile. "I see you haven't lost the skills of being a ranch hand."

He blushed a little.

" _And this will make getting around much faster_ ," Midna piped up, her voice filled with a surprising amount of admiration. " _You can cut the travel time in half with a good horse, right?_ "

"True enough," I admitted with a nod. "How is she at jumping?"

"Epona is the best jumper around," he said, with no small amount of pride.

Epona. Of course he would name his horse that. She always _had_ been his mare. The name brought a tide of associations I had to fend off with some effort, and after a moment I shook my head.

"Still, those gates are topped with spikes. I'd rather not risk a good mare to a spiked fence, no matter how high she can jump."

" _Well, get a move on then, so he can finish this errand and we can get on with things!_ "

Tart, but true, I still took the time to first make friends with Epona, fetching a carrot from the inn's store room. Link laughed a little as she chowed it down as I worked on the lock of the gate.

"This thing is so rusty and junked up, I'm shocked they managed to make it lock in the first place," I muttered, working away with the picks. With a creak and a snap, the lock popped open, and I yanked it off, then pushed open the gate. "All right Hero. See you soon."

Link nodded, saluted me—I had to smile, even if only just a little—and lightly nudged Epona into a walk. It swiftly became a trot, then, as he moved off, the change in speed suggested a canter. After a few moments I shook my head, turned around, and went back into Kakariko.

"What will you do now, Lady?" Renado asked as I stepped over to the spring.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm going up the mountain. They like to think they can keep everyone out, but they can't."

"But... then if you know another way up..."

"Why didn't I take him?"

Renado nodded, confusing clear on his face.

"I have been a long-standing ally. No doubt I am the exception to the rule, even if they don't know it yet," and I grinned just a little ferally. "And if they don't, well, soon they'll learn. _Link_ , however, is an unknown entity to them. As much as I hate it, if they don't test him, they'll never accept that he can have a comparable strength. I need them to work _with_ us, not against us."

"So you allow his testing because you have no other choice."

"Pretty much," I sighed. "And I hate the delay. But at the same time, it'll be good for him to go home and tell everyone he knows that their children are safe enough here. Mn, and before I forget, I'm going to unlock the gate out, and maybe we'll get some luck from one of the other villages, or even the market."

"Do you think we will?"

"Other villages, sure. There's still trade that needs to happen, even with everything going on. No doubt there's some out there just waiting for the gate to be opened before they come in."

"I hope you are right, my lady."

Privately, I was less sure than I sounded, but again, being a leader sometimes means bluffing like nobody's business. Once I had the lock off, I returned to the mountain path and climbed up.

"Hey you! No humans al-"

"If you finish that sentence, you will be eating a fireball," I interrupted, pointedly wreathing my hand in flames. "I am in _no mood_ for this."

"Erk.. Sister!"

I smiled thinly, and nodded.

"Good. You recognize me. Now. I am going up the mountain. Are you going to stop me?"

"No, Sister," he said, moving aside quickly. "Elder Gor Coron said he wished to see you as soon as possible!"

That was not even slightly comforting.

The path up was as winding as ever, and while I faced no danger from the rolling Gorons, the mountain itself spat stone at me, flaming boulders that I had to dodge, or hide from until the storm of fury eased off briefly, allowing me another dash further up the path.

What should have only taken a few hours was stretched into almost half the day. And since I hadn't started until almost midday, well... annoyed was putting it _mildly_ by the time I made it up to the meeting hall of the Gorons.

Gor Coron, at least, looked pleased to see me, but I saw none of the other Goron Elders... and no sign of Darbus.

"Did he _really_?" I demanded.

"...I am afraid so, Sister."

I spun off into a round of swearing to vent my poor temper; amusingly it almost seemed that the mountain echoed my mood because it spat stones as I started swearing,and didn't stop until I did.

"I told you!" I snapped. "If I've told you once, I've told you _hundreds_ of times to _leave it alone!_ "

"Darbus thought that it would do no harm, since your spells rest upon it, Sister."

"My spells were made to keep it sealed and quiet, and _prevent it from selecting a host to work through!_ " I replied, seething. I did not yell, but I put every ounce of displeasure I could into my voice. "Without a host, even unbalanced the power is essentially _harmless!_ And he _touched it!_ "

The elder Goron was patient enough, at least, to weather my temper. In truth, most Gorons could, even hot-headed Darbus. They all, to a one, knew that while I might yell and threaten, I would not actually do anything to harm them. Not just because we were allies, but because we were family. Even the fireball threat had been mostly for show; it was the easiest way they had to recognize me when I had been away for a time.

"Yes, Sister, he did, and now he is paying for it. We have him trapped in the depths of the mines, and we split the key amongst ourselves. Can... can you help us now?"

I sighed a little.

"I can help, yes. But... I hate to wait for my partner. I'm going to need his help to get through your mines..."

"You need his help, Sister?"

I grimaced.

"I don't want to talk about it. By the way, would you happen to have a spare bow? Mine broke."

"...of course, Sister. Please. This way."


	9. Eight

Eight

Were it not for the bulbin, I would have stayed up with the Gorons. But because I had unlocked the gates at both ends of the village in hopes of _other_ village trade coming in, the bulbin appeared to have taken it as an invite to go raiding.

When Eldin contacted me with this information, I took my new bow, and raced back to the village, vaulting startled Gorons in my bid to get down. I didn't even care to wait for the mountain to stop spitting rocks at random intervals.

The annoying things were sent packing the moment I was in range, and I decided to stay put instead of going back up, setting up guard at the end of the village nearest to the plains, and picking off the bulbin and battle pigs whenever they dared to try and get close.

This put me at the wrong end of the village when the leader came charging in. I hadn't expected them to come from the Faron side, and my unpreparedness almost cost Colin his life. Even as the boy finally found his courage...

It was swift, when it happened. Annoyingly so. It had been quiet, and I was only slightly on guard, I admit. The sound of battle boar hooves sounded at first like thunder, but there were no clouds in the sky, and I was on my feet, seeking out a cloud of dust. It was Talo, yelling as he ran, that turned me in the opposite direction in time to see Colin rush ot before the boars and shove Beth out of the way, then turn; I could read the defiance in his farm even as the boar hit him head on and sent him flying.

I swore and jumped down from my perch, rolling as I hit the ground and came up with an arrow to the string; the bastard scooped Colin up, and used him as a shield before I could fully draw. I swore again, more viciously this time, and shifted aim to the two bulbin on the leftmost pig. They howled at they died, but the leader seemed unimpressed, waving the unconscious boy aloft like some sort of flag.

Link's angry shout carried from the path, and the lead bulbin turned, and waved the boy mockingly in his direction as well; had he not been so fully armored, I wouldn't have hesitated to shoot him in the back.

With a shout of its own, the bulbin leader and his surviving cohorts took off for the plains. Link shot past without waiting, and I let him; this was his fight, and he would use everything he had to win. It wasn't my place to stand in the way, but I could offer aid.

First though, I needed a horse of my own; to that end I pulled out the Ocarina, and played a tune to bring my a horse. She raced up to me from the plains, a piebald mare that held no tack, not even a saddle blanket. She stood still as I pulled myself onto her back, and then shot off with only the lightest of nudges. Even knowing I might not ever see her again, I immediately dubbed her Windchaser.

As we hit the plains, I heard the mournful horn call from the leader that summoned battle pigs and bulbins en masse, and caught up enough to see that the leader had tied Colin onto a long staff like some sort of battle flag.

"You get the boy, leave the small fry to me," I called to Link as we shot past. "Go for the armor straps!"

Because if he could get off enough armor, I had no compunctions about shooting the damn thing.

"Right!"

Link charged after me, heading straight for the blue battle boar that held the leader; I kept the smaller ones busy dying, or at least falling off their own boars with a well-placed arrow to the leg, arm, or shoulder. Anything to keep them off Link so that he could attack their leader without fear.

In hindsight, I should have told him to stay off the bridge... I should have seen it was a trap, but not until Link had leapt the barricade on Epona did I spy the bulbin with fire arrows; the flames whooshed up, barring Windchaser and me from joining him.

Off to the side I went, waiting and tense as the battle on the narrow bridge commenced; the canyon was ancient and deep, and if he fell down there...

Link nimbly dodged the boar's tusks, and delivered a swipe that removed the last of the bulbin leader's armor; without hesitation, I shot. The bulbin leader fell backwards onto the great bridge, but his boar continued for a few feet more, crashing heedlessly through the flaming wooden barrier until Windchaser and I were able to bring the creature to a reluctant halt.

Getting Colin down took minimal effort; the 'battle standard' had been held up by the weight of the bulbin leader sitting in his saddle; with the leader down—and dead, I assumed—getting it down was only a matter of wiggling the stick out and lowering it so that Link could cut him free.

"What do we do now?" Link asked anxiously.

I could hardly blame him for being worried; Colin was almost deathly pale.

"Here, give him to me. I can help."

After I jumped back onto Windchaser, and sent the boar off running with a smack, Link handed Colin to me. I half-closed my eyes, calling on the magic inside, and reached to see just how badly the boy had been hurt.

It was certainly not pretty; his ribs had not just been broken, a couple of them had been shattered. The internal trauma was extensive, and any number of the injuries could have killed him, given the time to bleed out. He wasn't going to make it back to the spirit spring, not at this rate.

Fortunately, I don't need the spring's power to heal people.

I sang softly, letting the threads of magic spin into the boy as the Song of Healing spun into the air. The magic is more easily channeled through the Ocarina, but I needed both hands to hold Colin in place while I worked. When I had done enough to stabilize him until we reached the spring, I stopped, and sighed a little, rolling my head lightly on my neck.

"All right. Let's get him back to the spring, and Renado."

The horses almost immediately stretched into a smooth, easy canter that was swift enough to take us back to the gates as the sun was beginning to set. Getting back to the spring was a matter of minutes, and mostly only took that ong because we'd drawn a crowd of anxious watchers; Beth, Talo, Malo, Luda, and Renado were front and center as we made it to the healing waters. Link dismounted first, and I passed Colin down to him.

"Lay him in the spring. He should wake up soon enough."

In point of fact, he woke sooner, as I dismounted from Windchaser.

"L...ink?" her mumbled. "Is... everyone okay?"

"Everyone's fine," Link replied, a proud smile on his face. "See?"

The children crowded around Link's kneeling form, and a new respect for him was clear in their eyes. Beth's relieved smile at his return to awareness was brilliant, and I moved off, letting the children and Link have some time to be quietly relieved together. It was not, after all, my place to intrude.

Instead, I cared for the horses, removing Epona's tack, and finding the stores of grass and grain for them to eat while I gave them both a brisk rubdown. Water from the spring in a trough would slake their thirst, and they were more then free to roam as they pleased. I even snuck them some treats for bearing us without complaint on what undoubtedly had been a hard ride.

"Raiha!"

I turned at the panicked call, and saw that Colin had fallen unconscious again. It had clearly been an abrupt collapse, but before I could get involved, Renado swept in, and neatly took charge of the boy.

"It will be all right," he said firmly. "What the lady has begun, we can complete. He needs to rest now. Soon, all will be well."

The children followed, much like cuckoo chicks, and watched as Colin was laid in the spring that glimmered golden as night began to fall. Link glanced first at Renado, then at me, and only relaxed a little when I nodded.

"Renado knows what he's doing," I said. "For tonight, we'll rest. In the morning, we have Gorons to face. Come on."

And morning came soon enough; Colin, after a brief soak in the spirit's spring to ease the worst of his injuries, was put on a bed in Renado's sanctuary, with both Beth and Luda to look after him. Link looked in on him briefly before we left,and then got a small shock as we checked the shop for anything we might use on the way up the mountain; Malo had decided to take it over and run it.

I have to say, it's a very _strange_ thing to see a toddler run a store, but he certainly seemed more than capable, so after bargaining for a much better shield than what Link had, we left, and headed up the mountain.

"So, out of curiosity, what _did_ your mayor do to win the Goron's respect?" I asked.

"He, uh... beat them at sumo with the help of some really heavy boots," Link admitted sheepishly.

"... _iron_ boots?"

"Yeah! Wait, how did you...?"

I bit my tongue on half a dozen different replied, and stomped hard on my temper. Taking it out on him was hardly the way to handle things, and there wasn't even a point.

"A long time ago, they were mine," I said finally. "I didn't need them, so I left them with the Gorons. Someone stole them for whatever reason. At least now they'll be useful again."

They were too; despite being a head taller than Link, the Gorons challenged him all the way up the path, forcing him to trudge along in heavy boots so that he could remain planted against their rolling weight. In a way, it was almost funny; the Gorons, when tossed, rolled down the path. I hoped some of them ended up in Kakariko, where their strength could be put to good use again, instead of just flopped out dizzily on the path.

We suffered the flaming rocks of the mountain too, but that got especially bad once we reached the plateau where Link had faced down the four shadow beasts. One shadow seemed almost _maliciously_ targeted at us, and only by breaking away at the last second did we avoid the tall spike of barely-cooled lava rock.

" _Well! That looks rather dangerous! Is this a traditional Death Mountain greeting?_ " Midna asked with a giggle.

"Falling rocks, sure. Falling spikes, not so much; this is just one of the signs of an upset mountain... Come on, before the Gorons mob you, let's get up there."

If it had just been me, up would have been no problem; friendly Gorons don't mind giving allies an upwards boost. But coming with an unknown as I was, the unknown _required_ testing. Especially since I had called him my partner, and hadn't _that_ information spread like wildfire. Proof that no matter the race, everyone loves to gossip.

So Link had to suffer though smacking Gorons in the face with his shield, using enough strength to startle them so that they curled up in a reflexive bid to protect one of their vulnerable points; their eyes. From there, we climbed on, and they sent us upwards.

It sounds simple to say it, but really, Link got his fair share of bruises from both being run down by the occasional roller that he missed grabbing, or the punch he failed to duck properly laying him out onto his back. And of course, he received no help from me; this was his test, to pass or fail on his merits.

Fortunately, along with courageous, Link is patently stubborn. He didn't want to _hurt_ them, but he was bound and determined to get up to the top.

And up to the top we reached. Stepping into the meeting hall, we were greeted _not_ by Gor Coron, but by half a dozen Goron who immediately regarded Link as a threat and curled up, ready to roll and ram.

"Oh _enough_ already," I snapped, stopping them in their tracks. "I mean _really_..."

"Our Sworn Sister is correct, Little Brothers," Gor Coron said, as the two guards at the far end of the chamber moved aside to let him in. "Ganging up on him will not allow us to judge his true strength."

I groaned.

"Really? We are _kind_ of on a time limit, Gor Coron..."

"Sister, surely you know it is the right of family... He is strong for a human, but is he strong _enough_? These mines are our sacred grounds, after all."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, and tried to not be annoyed. Tried being the key word there. But there was little I could really do; this was Goron ceremony, more or less, and as much as it annoyed me, trying to pass it on by would only pass contempt onto Link, which would make it difficult for him to get Goron aid in the future.

"I hope Bo taught you sumo, as well as gave you the boots," I sighed, glancing at Link. "You're going to get a crash course otherwise. Probably quite literally."

"He taught me the basics," Link said with an uneasy nod.

"Good! Gor Coron boomed. "Then step into the ring, little warrior, and show us proof of your strength!"

Sumo, by and large, is not my most favorite thing in the world. I am many things, but without my silver gauntlets, I am no match for even the youngest of the Gorons in terms of strength. In terms of grappling, well... I fight dirty, and get out of range with all possible speed. And grappling with a Goron is not something wise people do.

I still haven't decided if it's a good thing that Link was just foolish enough to jump into the ring, ready to not just battle Gor Coron at sumo, but _win_.

It still took him a few tries, but the Gorons as a whole love an entertaining sumo match. Me? I found a place to sit and wait, and had something to eat while I was at it, until Link finally managed to throw Gor Coron from the ring.

"Satisfied?" I asked, with biting sweetness.

"Your partner has strength enough, and eyes as sharp as diamond," Gor Coron said, slowly getting to his feet. "And now, with his aid, you will tend to our problem?"

"We will," I said, hopping off the ledge with a nod as Link struggled out of the boots and put them away.

"The other thre Elders hold the shards of the key we used to lock our patriarch, Darbus, away after he made the mistake of touching the sacred treasure left in our keeping," Gor Coron sighed a little. "His transformation... it was frightening. I hope that you truly can free our Patriarch."

Link nodded firmly.

"We can do it," he said, unfeigned confidence in his voice.

"You managed to lock him away, at least," I said a little tartly, still annoyed by the fact that my direct instruction had been ignored. "But how deep in the mines are we going to need to go?"

"To the heart, Sister," Gor Coron said firmly.

"...right. Link, put this on."

While I had long since lost my spare Zora armor to time and wear, the Goron tunic had received much less use. Along with my affinity for fire spells, the ability to enchant fire _resistance_ spells was still in working order. So it was easy enough to have a tunic of approximately the correct size with the proper enchantment on it. Link took it willingly enough, but gave me a curious look.

"What's it for?"

"Humans aren't meant to go in the Goron mines, Little Brother," Gor Coron replied. "What a Goron can take in terms of heat and fumes would kill a human in under ten minutes. Our Sister's tunic will keep you safe from such things."

The pride in his voice earned him a faintly wry smile from me. I certainly don't go about singing my own praises, but gregarious Gorons are more than happy to do that for me. Granted, Link had been in the process of changing while receiving the answer, but still.

"Hey, you two. Move it," the elder commanded.

With no hesitation, the two guards slid to the side, allowing us access to the mines.

"Have you a map, Sister?"

"It's probably out of date. A new one wouldn't go amiss."

Gor Coron nodded solemnly, and a new map was quickly brought as Link fastened all the belt and buckles again.

"Our Patriarch is here. The three Elders with key shards are here, here, and here," he said, putting charcoal lines around specific cavernous rooms. "Be wary; some bulbin have been trying to settle in this room here, and there are some explosive materials lying around..."

"We will. Thanks Gor Coron. C'mon Link."

Link fell into step beside me as we headed down the tunnel, then cast a curious look back.

"What _was_ that all about?" he asked.

"Gorons like to test their potential allies. If one who is already an ally steps in, it's regarded as them not having faith in their friend, and that is an insult," I grimaced a little. "So I had to let them test you. Sorry."

"He didn't really hurt me..."

"No, Gor Coron isn't a bad Goron. He's an elder, and their former Patriarch, and really, he _likes_ humans. He thinks we're soft, squishy, and entertaining. But he, like the other elders, takes his duty seriously."

"...I'm not going to have to do that again, am I?"

I couldn't help it, his worried tone and worried look both made me snicker a little.

"No,we should be fine. Gossip travels faster than you'd think, and the Gorons have ways of communicating that don't necessarily require being face to face. With any luck, they'll be expecting us."

Further conversation was cut off by stepping into the mines. Link made a faintly strangled sound at the sudden slap of heat, and the sullen sort of light that came from open lava.

"Impressive, huh?"

"...not the word I would use," he said, eyeing the ledges with open trepidation. "Are you _sure_ about this?"

"Yes. I know it's frightening, but if you trust me, we can very much do this."

Nervously, hesitantly, he followed me as I led the way into the mines.

The mines are amaze, truth be told, of paths that made sense to the Gorons. Machines to move about ores from platform to platform littered the way, alongside the pockets of open lava. Other places,open to the air, held the water that Gorons used to cool molten metal and rock, though all their workshops were abandoned.

We found Gor Amoto first, a wizened old Goron the size of one of their children, not too terribly far from the entrance.

"Ah... then the stones were right, and you have indeed come to help us, Sister," he greeted in a voice like a creaky old tree limb. "And your young friend as well?"

"Yes. This is Link. Link, this is Gor Amoto."

Link bowed politely, and the elder Goron seemed pleased by the respect.

"Please, lend our tribe your strength," he said, offering up a piece of the key. "This is one of the three shards that will let you into the room where we were forced to lock away Darbus. The other two shards are held by Gor Ebizo, and Gor Liggs, deeper in. Please hurry."

"As fast as we can," Link promised.

I nodded in moderate agreement; we actually were making relatively good time, even with stopping to have food, and rest up, among other necessary things. Of course, Goron maps were judged by Goron steps, and their strides weren't actually that much larger than the average person. It as when they counted by roll that things got difficult, and paths are marked short than they actually are.

But I digress.

The farther in we went, the trickier it became to get around. The magnetic ore that covered the walls took up more and more space, and that stuff is slick. Not quite as bad as ice, but without iron boots, it's quite a bit like skating. More than one, I was forced to grab Link's arm to prevent myself from sliding over the edge... and it became even worse the rare times there was no floor and we had to walk on the walls... or the ceilings. Especially since we were hardly the only creatures _in_ the mines; keese and torchslugs weren't so bad, but the evolution of the dodongo were something of a nightmare.

Link, fortunately, was a very good sport about me needing to be more or less wrapped around him for about half the time we were stuck in that set of passages. I admit, I sort of wanted to bite someone by the time we found solid rock again.

Gor Ebizo took one look at the scowl on my face and burst out laughing.

"Only one pair of boots makes the journey troublesome, eh Sister?" he teased.

"Oh shut up," I grumbled, crossing my arms sulkily.

"I am glad you've made it this far, Brudda," he said with a grin at Link. "And in one piece too; our Sister's temper is almost as hot as the mountain on a bad day."

"This is me ignoring you," I said firmly, flopping down and getting out something to eat. "Completely ignoring you!"

Link made a sound that I suspect was a laugh; Ebizo was not so circumspect, and guffawed at my expense. Pointedly, I ignored them both.

"I am Gor Ebizo, third elder of our tribe. Since you have come this far, and put up with the snapping fish-"

" _Still_ ignoring you!"

"You plainly know what's going on with our patriarch. Here. This is my piece of the key."

He handed it to Link, then sighed a little.

"I see you, and think of the dangers that lie ahead. Sister, is your aim still sharp?"

I twisted around, then nodded.

"Still the best archer around," I said. "New bow and everything."

"Ah, good. Then you did get the bow we left for you! Gor Liggs thought it was about time you received a new one."

"Mmhm; Gor Coron fetched if for me when I came up. It's very nice, thank you."

Link blinked, and looked at me curiously. After a moment I shrugged.

"When I came up the first time," I clarified. "I came back down to keep the bulbin from raiding the village while you were gone. I wish I'd seen that leader coming, though. I'd have shot him in the face..."

"You'd have wasted an arrow," he said after a moment.

"I'd still have shot him in the face."

He chuckled a little, and came to sit with me and eat, while behind us, Gor Ebizo settled in for his own meal of special, crunchy rocks.

Gorons are indeed very strange.

We slept there for a few hours before heading back out into the maze of tunnels that would lead to Gor Liggs; I had not really been given a chance to show off with the bow, other than sniping a few bulbin from their perches, so when we found ourselves outside Gor Liggs' cave, surrounded by beamos, well...

I did.

Not that beamos are particularly _difficult_ enemies; they aren't even really enemies in the truest sense of the word. They are magically imbued guardian stones, for lack of a better phrase; the holder is carved to accept a bespelled jewel. When the jewel catches movement, it 'wakes up, so to speak, and attacks until the movement ceases. The easiest way to deal with the beamos is simply to shatter the jewel. Which is exactly what I did. I just did it in a circle, more or less without really stopping.

Link's applause as we headed into Gor Liggs' cave made me smile just a bit ruefully.

"Ah, you have arrived at last," Gor Liggs said in delight, unfolding from his cross-legged meditation position. "Well met, Sister. Well met, new Little Brother! Here, this is the last shard."

With a click, the shard snapped into place, and the key was once more whole.

"Now you can open the door to the room where we were forced to lock away Darbus," he said solemnly. "Take great care; my sight has shown me that he has grown dark and powerful, and will not be an easy fight."

"We'll be as careful as we can, Gor Liggs," I replied, tucking the key away.

Now, I _might_ have been able to pick the lock, and bypass the Elders entirely, yes. But Goron locks are these tricky things, especially when they are impregnated with the magnetic metal so often found in their mines. Since they were being obliging and giving us the key shards, well, there was no point in me going ahead and breaking my picks just ti satiate my own pride.

We rested there as well, napping briefly and eating before we set out on the last leg of the journey. Annoyingly, it was the one that was packed _full_ of bulbins.

"...remind me to tell Gor Coron that when they get back in here, they are going to need to clear these packs of fools out before they start mining again," I muttered as the last one slipped and fell, screeching as the lava dissolved it.

Link just nodded, staring a little. With a slight shrug, I moved on, and looked up at the large door. The padlock on it was circular in shape, almost as much a combination lock as a regular one.

"I think you're going to need a boost," I said after a long moment. "C'mere."

"Wait, me? Why not you?"

"Do you really think you can hold me on your shoulders?" I asked dryly.

He drooped a little, because the answer was a very clear, overt no; strong the boy was, I will not deny that. But I am not necessarily _light_. We are comparable in strength, but my Silver Gauntlets give me the edge in most things.

So I was the one who braced Link as he climbed up onto my shoulders, put the key in the lock, and turned it.

"...nothing's happening," he said worriedly.

"Turn the wheel," I said after a moment, glancing up to get a better look at the lock.

"The... oh!"

I swear a little as he reached out and spun the gear behind the lock; it rotated freely, and popped open, then fell down with a crash; I jerked back to save my feet, and we both fell, hitting the ground with no chance to soften the impact.

"Sometimes, the Gorons really drive me nuts," I said dourly as I picked myself up, and made sure the fall hadn't damaged my bow or arrows.

Link groaned a little in agreement, picking himself up off the ground with a wince for his new bruises.

This door had never needed enchanting; it was too deep in the mines for anyone to go on a casual trip. It rolled open easily enough, revealing a dark room, with a shadowy being chained upright in the middle. As we stepped in, I rolled it closed behind us; if Darbus broke free of those chains, better to have him confined in one room than on a sudden rampage towards freedom and destruction.

"He's... sleeping?" Link asked, confused.

"So it would appear," I murmured, pulling out my bow. "All the better for us."

"But.. what do we do?"and now he gave me a wide-eyed look. "You can't mean to _kill_ him?!"

"Shh, keep your voice-"

It was too late; at Link's startled yelp—and no, I had _not_ been intending to kill Darbus—the sound of breathing in the room changed. The gem on the mask shifted from deep green to a brilliant, fiery orange, and cast almost angry illumination.

"Great. Now you've done it," I muttered, reaching out to yank Link back.

The thing that had been Darbus roared its awareness and lunged against its chains. It could even have been amusing, except the Fused Shadows sort of... acclimatize to their surroundings; as the one in the Old One had chosen an unpleasant plant as its host, and been able to poison water and air, so this piece had chosen a hardy Goron, and could.. well... burst into flames hot enough to rapidly soften the links of metal confining it. With for strong yanks, the chains broke free, and Darbus came at us. The chains on his arms were now his weapons, and he used them to devastating effect, shattering protective stonework that had once kept the Fused Shadow quiescent and harmless.

Fortunately, there was only one of him, which meant he could only focus one at a time on _us_. And it didn't take long to realize that there was magnetic alloy in the floor.

"Link! Grab on of the ankle chains and _pull!_ "

He shoved his feet into the boots without being prompted, and held on for all he was worth; with a roar, Darbus plummeted down, slamming face first into the floor. There was a cracking sound, and the jewel developed a hairline fracture. I tried to rush in, but he recovered quickly, and snapped an arm out, the heat driving me back more than the hit.

Still, now that we had an idea of what to do, an effective strategy more or less, we were able to use it to our advantage. I stung Darbus with arrows to keep his focus on me; Link grabbed the nearest ankle chain and yanked for all he was worth.

Finally, the stone shattered. It seemed to splatter motes of lava to the ground as Darbus whipped his head around in agony before, with a sound much like a minor explosion, it became nothing more than dust, and Darbus was knocked backwards.

I reached out to the spell, and _pulled_. The mask Darbus had been wearing pulled free, returning the Goron to his natural state, and reformed into the shape it was meant to be. It hovered there in the air, humming faintly with the power that was no longer going to be causing mountain, or old friend, to run rampant.

"Midna. Your second piece."

She popped up in glee, and quickly grabbed it.

" _That's_ two _Fused Shadows now,_ " she said, overt pleasure in her voice. " _And since you've both been so wonderfully helpful, I'll tell you an interesting story, how about that?_ "

"Interesting story?" I raised an eyebrow. "Define interesting."

" _Zant,_ " she said firmly. " _That's the name of the King of Twili who cast this shadowy pall across your world. He's very strong... in your current state, you wouldn't be much of a match for him. Well.._ " and she gave me a speculative look. "You _might. But not Link._ "

I half-smirked; at the time, I was of the opinion that if I faced Zant as I was, missing only a quarter of my power wouldn't save him any.

" _He's not_ my _king thought,_ " Midna said angrily. " _His supposed strength isn't worthy of anything but scorn. Though,_ " and her voice shifted from outright aggression to overt irritation, " _your Zelda isn't that much better. How can someone raised in privilege, living such a carefree lifestyle, learn what it means to do your duty?_ "

"A question for the ages," I said a little dryly. "Not that I'm disagreeing. It's hard for an inherent queen or king to understand what life is like outside the palace. Same for the nobility; they don't ever really understand what it is to live a harsh life."

Midna sighed a little, nodding as she tucked the Fused Shadow away safely.

" _Still, I don't begrudge her the circumstances of her birth... It's not like she chose them, after all. And I certainly don't want her to come to harm. No... as long as I can get the last Fused Shadow, I'll be just fine._ "

I studied the Twili princess thoughtfully, then smiled faintly; no doubt her own upbringing hadn't been as carefree, but it had still been far easier than that of her subjects. And by watching us risk our lives on her behalf, she was starting to come to realize that maybe what she was used to wasn't all there was.

" _Well, there's just one more of them! Shall we go and fetch it?_ "

"Hold on a moment; I'd like to check on Darbus and make sure he'll be all right."

Link nodded a little in agreement, and we went over to the Goron patriarch, who groaned a little as he sat up, holding his head. I didn't doubt he currently had the world's worst headache.

"Darbus, how are you feeling?"

"Uuuuugh," he groaned. "My head aches... What am I doing here...?"

"Yup. He's fine. Come on, let's go."

"He's... but..?" Link blinked at me as I headed for Midna. "Raiha?"

"He's a Goron. And no doubt the other elders have felt the change in the mountain by now. They'll come up and help him get out of the mines, and _we_ ," I reached out and caught his sleeve, pulling him along, "can get going."


	10. Nine

Nine

Midna dropped us right at the edge of Eldin's pool; the spirit was waiting to give us more information.

~ _Next you must go north, to the lands protected by Lanayru_ ~ it said gravely. ~ _Past the plains and the great stone bridge, you will find the last of whom you seek._ ~

"We're still missing someone?" I asked, giving Link a curious glance.

"...Ilia," He said quietly. "We've been friends for... forever."

"Ah. I see."

I did see, too. It wasn't uncommon for a Hero to have someone he loved,well before I came into the picture. It _hurt_ , it always does, but I am not so selfish as to say that he, or the princess, could ever love only me. It was clear enough in his subdued tone that she was dreadfully important to him, and I could not, _would_ not, interfere with that.

"Well then; let's check on Colin, and head north."

He smiled at me then, a shyly pleased smile, and I couldn't quite help but smile back. Then he blinked, and his gaze shifted beyond me, making me turn in curiosity. Colin stood there, not far from us, surrounded by his village friends, and Luda, Renado standing protectively at his back.

"Link," Colin said, staggering forward with a smile.

The boy _almost_ made it to the spring before his strength failed him. Link rushed forward to help; I followed more slowly, wondering what it was the boy was going to say.

"Ilia," Colin gasped out, wincing a little. Link went so still that I wondered if he was breathing. "You've got to save her! They left us on the plains, but they kept her, and took her somewhere else!"

Link breathed in sharply, and I rested a hand lightly on his shoulder. He was tense, but after a moment, he breathed out again as Colin looked away.

"Whenever I thought it was too tough, or scary, I thought of you guys," the boy admitted, "and I was able to go on." With a pained grunt, he got to his feet all on his own, no support from anyone else. I had to smile just slightly at the bravery in the move; this child would go far in the world one day... just like the Hero he so looked up to. "I-I'm fine now, see?"

After a stunned moment, Link smiled, his pride clear to see. Colin smiled back, a little bashfully.

"Remember what I told you back in Ordon?" he asked.

"That you wanted to be like me someday," Link replied, nodding a little.

"Well, I think I can do it now. So you don't have to worry about us anymore; go find Ilia!"

"I will watch over the children," Renado said, coming up behind Colin with a gentle smile of his own. "They will be safe here, I swear it. You must go to the ones who need you now."

Link nodded again, and Renado glanced at me, and when I nodded slightly, back to Link.

"Here in Hyrule, there are countless stories of the legendary hero. Your great deeds bring them all to mind. May the graces of the great goddesses who shaped this land of Hyrule bear you safely along your journey."

He and Luda bowed,with Beth and Talo swiftly following suit. Link flushed a little, and looked to me. Lightly, I patted him on the shoulder; I knew how it felt to be so publicly acknowledge for grand deeds. Embarrassing was putting it mildly.

"You heard the boy. Let's go find your missing friend. The horses will make the journey swifter."

"We have provisioned them for you," Luda said. "Food and water to see you on your way!"

"And with the return of the Gorons, our village will be well protected," Renado added.

"Oh good. I'm glad they're behaving again," I sighed a little in exasperated relief. "That's that then. Come on Link."

He hesitated a moment, then nodded, and went to fetch the horses.

I admit, I was surprised to see that Windchaser had not only elected to stay, but had allowed herself to be saddled, with packs attached to the back; wild horses are not usually so docile after the magic of summoning left them. But I was glad of it too; riding double with Link would have put a strain on Epona that we couldn't really afford.

We made one stop on our way out, getting Link a bag to hold bombs in from Barnes The things are too curst noisy for my liking, but the come in handy, and with the return of Goron sensibility, Barnes had gotten his shipment of bomb-making supplies.

Plus, it was kind of amusing to watch Link squirm a little as Barnes lamented the loss of his storehouse.

We emerged onto the plains in the brilliant light of noon, and for a moment just stared across at the remaining piece of twilight. Lanayru province, which held the Zora as well as the castle. Unease curled in my stomach, and memories of long ago whispered to me about the Zora fate; surely, surely that could not happen again...

I nudged Windchaser into a trot, and Link followed suit. We rode silently for a while, making for the Great Bridge of Eldin, and keeping a sharp eye out for an ambush of bulbin... but the creatures seemed to have vanished, along with their leader, and we were not challenged, nor even really acknowledged until we reached the other side of the bridge.

"That's not good," Link observed as we halted before a rockslide.

"No, no it's not," I sighed. "Right in the path too... Hn..."

It looked, admittedly, less like a slide and more like someone had deliberately put these three large boulders in the way.

"I suppose we could climb over them, but this is part of the major trade route through to Eldin." After a moment, I sighed. "I suppose we'll just have to blow them up. Link?"

He grinned a little, clearly eager, and climbed down from Epona. I just shook my head, and backed the horses off to a safe distance; Link, after laying the bombs, came running back to us almost comically fast.

The explosion rang through the canyon, spraying shards of rock high into the air... and from behind us, I felt the shadow magic rip at the fabric of the world. Swearing, I popped up onto my saddle to get a better look at what was happening just in time to see a large chunk of the bridge—much too large to jump—simply dissolve away into shadow. To top it off, from the portal fell three shadow beasts, directly onto the bridge.

It had been a booby trap, and we had fallen for it completely.

"When I get my hands on him," I muttered leaping lightly down to the ground.

"H-hey!" Link protested, jumping down from his own horse. "Wait!"

I was in no mood to wait.

Anger is occasionally a useful thing. At least, it is when you can keep control over it, instead of letting it control you. For me, when I am riding the anger, ruling it, my fear of heights becomes almost negligible.

But I was not engaging the creatures at swordpoint, oh no. Link was prepared to do that precise thing, but that would have been merciful, and they had just broken one of the most ancient bridges in Hyrule, that had survived for centuries. They had cut us off from the potential for _any_ help from the Gorons, and had made the trade route even longer for the people in my province.

I take my duty very seriously, yes.

They were in my world, on, essentially, _my_ bridge. The sunlight didn't seem to bother them, but the magic I wield is much more than sunlight. It is light in all spectrums, all forms, and for that, they had no defense.

Link didn't even get to draw his sword before they fell, dissipating into nothing more than inky splotches before vanishing entirely. It didn't bring the missing bridge piece _back_ , but it did make me feel a little better.

"...what... was that?" he asked cautiously.

I gave him a razor thin smile.

"That was my express displeasure. And if we don't find that bridge piece in _one_ piece, I'll be glad to repeat it on Zant."

Proud, boastful words. It had been too long since I'd faced Ganondorf's power.

Link didn't seem afraid of me, at least. We camped there for the night, and if his movements during practice were a bit more cautious, well, there wasn't much I could do about that except be sort of darkly amused.

I am not, for the record, a very good person. Long life does not grant one immunity to being... well... a person. I can be petty, I can hold grudges, I can make mistakes with the best of them. I just have to live with those mistakes for far longer than anyone else. Ever.

I digress.

Ironically, we reached the last band of twilight as genuine twilight fell two days later, after passing through a canyon practically full of bulbin archers. I had hoped we might rest in the Hidden Village that night, but a quick glance into the cavern that would take us there showed me that it was impossible; the cavern appeared to have collapsed.

In my defense, I didn't realize that there was still one old woman left in the village. There had always been a few Sheikah left, but after Impa had opened Kakariko, their numbers had dwindled. Even the founding of a new village, just for them, had done nothing to save them from the devastation that war after war after war had caused.

Had I known about Impaz then, I would have done everything in my power to reach her.

The horses we left reluctantly before the twilight wall, removing and hiding tack, and spreading grass and grain for them to eat. A small, nearby spring provided water, and with any luck, the bulbin wouldn't get up the courage to come this far in an attempt to steal them.

Link looked up at the golden-black wall, not with trepidation, but determination.

"We can tackle twilight in the morning, after we've rested and eaten," I told him firmly, pulling him a little ways away. "Come on, boy, you know the drill."

He did too, and even if he was anxious to keep moving, following my lead had started to become second nature. We practiced. We ate. We slept near a magical fire since there was no wood around, and I had the energy to spare. Morning dawned gray and dreary, but quiet. After warming up, and breakfast, we were ready to enter the twilight.

" _About time,_ " Midna huffed a little. " _This is the last Fused Shadow, so we're going to see the last of this lovely twilight. Of course, whether or not you two survive this final task is up to your skills~_ "

I rolled my eyes, and handed Link a leather bag, which he looped over his shoulders.

" _What's that for?_ "

"If we're in the twilight longer than a couple of days, it's food," I replied. "And water. You know, things we mortals need to survive."

" _And you want him to carry it while he transforms?_ "

"It's worth a shot," I shrugged a little. "I mean, unless you're volunteering to carry this stuff for us, we kind of have to do it this way."

Midna made a faint 'tch'ing sound, but couldn't exactly argue. As a shadow, her grasp was limited only to things that resonated with her ability to reach them. In the world of light, as ours was, that was only the Fused Shadows at the moment. This was an attempt at a workaround; since neither of us could stay human in the smothering weight of the twilight, we couldn't access our food or water.

So we needed to get the bags into the twilight, without losing them.

We were lucky that it actually worked; it had mostly been a gamble on my part. And Midna, to my surprise, did indeed take charge of the bags, vanishing them to wherever she stored the sword and shield Link had first gotten her.

The press of twilight was softer now, with this being the last piece of it. I had the sense that if I truly wanted to, I could have retrained human form... but I would have been battling the pressure, and that took magic. I did not want to tie up my magic with holding off the twilight, so I simply allowed the transformation; after this third time,I was reasonably assured that I could change myself whenever I wanted, at least, to this feline form.

"Well then, now I'll help you," Midna said grandly. "Still, it's a shame. I liked seeing all this twilight cover your lands. Ah well... maybe it's _not_ the last you'll see."

" _She really is not good at this 'attempting comfort' thing,_ " I said after a moment as we started down the path.

" _Nope._ "

Other than a few shadow keese, the first two or so hours of our walk was uneventful. The canyon was wide enough to easily run down, but Link seemed to have learned that when I set a pace, that was the pace. Eager though he was to find his Ilia, he kept himself to the smooth lope that I didn't have to struggle to follow.

Again, our help for finding her was directly on the path. It was so obvious that it felt like a trap, really; who _doesn't_ notice a leg-pouch falling to the ground, I ask you?

In the end though, it didn't matter. Link saw it and stuck his nose to it.

I have to admit, Ilia's scent is not a terrible one; flowers and grass, the smell of ink and paper. It was tainted some with the reek of fear, a sour tang overlaying the rest, but I could feel that—once I met the girl—I would probably like her.

"You smell the girl, huh?" Midna said with a smirk. Link twisted around to stare at her. "It's all over your face. I suppose that's good, it's another clue, anyways. Though, it could be quite old, you know. Who knows if she's still really all right?~"

" _Offer to bite her still stands,_ " I said as he growled a little.

He snorted slightly and shook himself all over, then stuck his nose to the ground and began tracking. He slowed to a stop at the end of the canyon both from weariness and from awe; I could hardly blame him. The rock seemed almost to fall away, opening to the northern plains and granted us our first glimpse of the backside of Hyrule Castle. Unnatural twilight or not, it provided an ethereal backing for the castle that was always lovely.

"Well, we've seen _this_ castle before," Midna said with a giggle. "It sure took us a while to get back here, didn't it? Not that this will make things any easier, oh no. This close to the castle, there's bound to be _plenty_ of opposition, so you two had better be ready!"

Link glanced at me, and I gave a feline shrug.

" _It looks closer than it is,_ " I said after a moment. " _There's still at least three days to make it to the Market. There's no entrance back here._ "

He sighed, and drooped a little, then moved off to one side of the path, clearly electing to take a break and a nap.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for him; he wanted to find Ilia so bad, and not just for his village, but because _he_ cared for her. He wanted to run, and run, and run until he found her, just to make absolutely sure that she was all right.

But instead he was listening to me.

Honestly, I'm still a bit shocked that he didn't just leave me behind some days. Grateful that he didn't, but shocked.

It did take us the advertised three days and some, give or take a few hours; midna fed us when we needed food, and let us have water when we discovered that the river was not just low, it was practically dried up.

If there had been a safe way to split up then, I would have taken it; Link could have gone to find Ilia without my help, and I could have discovered what happened with the Zora that much sooner.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

It seemed to be midday by the time we made it into the Market; the number of spirits rushing around tending to their day-to-day effects confirmed this if nothing else. Even as spirits, they were still... well, _solid_ enough to impede us, and since they couldn't _see_ us, we were also nearly stepped on, kicked, or tripped over a great deal of the time.

Ilia's trail first led us through the heart of the town, where the fountain lay dry, and knots of people huddled in fear.

" _What's with them?_ " Link asked, slowing uncertainly as we tried to pick a path through that wouldn't get us run over.

" _The fountain is fed by the river, which flows from Zora's domain_ ," I replied, tucking my tail close to my body in an effort to avoid it getting flattened. " _If there's no water in the fountain, there's no water in the river. All the underground wells and springs here are fed from the same source, and if something's wrong in Zora's Domain, these people all stand a very good chance of dying of thirst._ "

He whined a little, and glanced at me with flat ears.

" _Yeah. It's bad. If we can, once we find your girl, we have to see what's wrong in Zora's Domain._ "

Next, we found ourselves on the east side of town, in the district that had taken the place where the Temple of Time had once stood. A doctor's office, doors tightly barred, prevented us from entering, but after casting about for a moment, a fresher scent trail was found, and we wove our way through legs and feet to the south end of town.

As we passed a knot of children, I heard the word 'zora' and stopped to listen. Link kept going for a few steps, before Midna realized I'd stopped; it was she who made him come back.

" _I can't believe we saw a real zora!_ " the girl was saying.

" _Yeah, but he was mostly dead,_ " said one boy, with a grimace.

" _Well, maybe he'll get better now that Miss Telma's got him. She can make that nasty old doctor do_ anything _._ "

" _Aww, it wasn't really_ that _impressive anyways,_ " said the second boy with a grimace. " _I've seen Zora loads of times!_ "

" _No you haven't!_ "

" _Yeah huh!_ "

I shook my head as they fell to bickering, laying my ears flat in worried annoyance. The only Zora child around at the moment was Prince Ralis. If Rutella had sent Ralis to the Market, that meant things were even worse than they looked on the surface.

" _You okay?_ "

I blinked and looked up to see Link sitting there, his concern overt. Midna too, though she didn't let it show on her face, seem worried.

" _...no. But we'll burn that bridge when we get there. Did you find your girl?_ "

" _No, Midna made me come back and wait for you._ "

". _..sorry. Let's keep going._ "

We didn't have to go far, at least; the trail led us straight to Telma's bar, and the door was ajar just enough that we were able to push ourselves in.

Link's ears immediately perked up, and he half-charged across the room to sit at Ilia's side. Telma hovered over her like a worried matron, and the both were focused on the Zora child. Ralis lay there, still and breathing so shallowly that at first I was afraid he was dead.

" _Can... can you save him?_ " Ilia asked timidly.

" _I've sent for the doctor, little lady, so try to calm down,_ " Telma replied, low voice almost honey-smooth. She was worried too, I could tell. " _I wonder what brought a Zora child here, of all place, though?_ "

"Awww, isn't this such a touching reunion?" Midna said mockingly. "A girl and her wolf, oh yes. Oh, but wait, she can't even see you!"

Link shook himself so abruptly that she almost fell off, and I snickered a little at her expense.

" _Now look here!_ " came an unexpected bellow from the guard captain at the back of the bar. " _You lot aren't heeding me at all! We're tasked to find out what's wrong with the spirit spring at Lake Hylia! You lot should know where that is!_ "

I snorted a little; the caliber of guard that had been turning out had been less than useful lately, but the guard was not my problem. I checked the map that was laid out on the table briefly, then nodded; it certainly marked a way to get down to the spring and the lake with the best possible speed...

"All right, we've fond the girl, so let's get moving to the spirit's spring already!"

Link hesiated, glancing at me. For my part, I jumped up next to the Zora prince and briefly rest a paw on Ralis, reaching for the magic I knew was there; in this form it was difficult, sort of like trying to run a sieve through mud, but I persisted and managed to weave a thread of healing into the boy. Then, for good measure, I found a cup of water, and knocked it over onto him; he was almost dangerously dry.

"Are you done yet?" Midna demanded.

Since it was the most I could do—and knocking the cup over had startled both Telma and Ilia—I jumped down, and we headed out the door.

It would have been much faster, much _easier_ , if we'd been able to head directly out the south gate, but there was a long line at the stand that completely cut access to the gate off. Ironically, for Goron spring water, probably the only clean water left in the city at this point. I had to hope, even as I made an annoyed sound and we set off back to the west gate, that they had enough to help the city until we could find out what was wrong with Zora's Domain.

It took us another two and a half days to reach the Great Bridge of Hylia, and from the moment I saw it, I got a bad feeling. There was something spread along the surface that shone oily and black, and fear of heights or not, I didn't want anything to do with it. I chose instead to walk on the stone guardrail that had long since fallen from Eldin's bridge—something I had meant, for several decades, to fix, but never had—and glanced down to where the lake should have been.

What I saw was not just frightening in terms of height, but disheartening. The once vast, grand lake was little more than a glorified puddle at this point. The lake depth, that house the temple, was all that was left.

"Say," Midna finally said as we reached the middle of the bridge. "Doesn't it smell a little funny to you?"

Whether Link had been ignoring it or truly not noticed, I couldn't really say; the minute he realized they were standing in lantern oil, though, he began growling, and made a break for the end of the bridge.

But it was already too late; the shadow bulbin that had been hiding at the far end set fire to the oil directly in front of itself, and then launched a fire arrow to the far end of the bridge, trapping us in between.

"We're trapped!" Midna cried.

There was no time to decide if this was worth the waste of magic, I simply did it, forcing the change back to human as I jumped down onto the bridge.

"Here! Come this way!"

Whether by luck or fortune, where I stood, the parapet had crumbled just enough that a wolf-sized hole could be seen, if not reached without help. Link darted over to me, and I pulled Midna off, then shoved Link up that extra foot so that he could scramble through the hole. Then I swung up onto the guardrail, took a moment to breathe a prayer to the goddesses to _not_ let us die, and jumped.

Midna, skilled as she was in the float and fall, was perfectly fine to do both of those thing. Link howled a little in fear as he jumped after me, and I reached out to the wolf, grabbing what I could of his fur, and wrapped us both in layer after layer of Nayru's love, hoping to ablate the worst of the shock that would come from hitting the water.

Water, from a great height, can kill one just as surely as the ground.

We hit with bone breaking force, but the shields broke the water before we did; even if they all shattered, they slowed us enough to only be middling stunned. With the water came a return to awareness, and we both swam rapidly up to the surface, where Minda floated, not bothering to hide her worry until we reached the surface.

"That was lucky!" she exclaimed. "How come you didn't do this before?"

"There wasn't a _need_ for me to do this before," I retorted, spitting out the water I had inadvertently breathed. "And it's... hard... to maintain this form."

It was too; softer or not, the pressure of the twilight was an inexorable weight, and fighting it was taking all the magic I had that was mine; I didn't want to rely on the spirits just yet.

Link whined at me, then struck out for shore; since it was the sensible choice—and I had no idea if the cat form could swim—I followed, quickly cutting through the water to dry land.

"Good thing this puddle was here!" Midna said as she floated along above us. "That could have been really nasty."

I heard Link snort a little, and as my feet found purchase on the bank, I slanted him a look of agreement; it was plain that Midna had no experience with hitting the water at any great speed.

"So, this lake isn't anything impressive, but where's the spring?"

I turned, and pointed.

"What?" Midna looked at the platform, well above where any but her could reach. "But how're you supposed to get up there?"

"We have to... go to Zora's Domain. Something's wrong at the water source... we have to... fix it."

"And what's wrong with you?" she asked, somewhere between arrogant and worried.

"I'm going to change back," I informed her with some asperity. "This is exhausting."

I let go of my hold on the magic, and immediately shifted back to the sand cat, then flopped down where I was with a pained sound; fighting the twilight _hurt_. Link whined a little, and nudged at me with his nose as I panted for breath and trembled with the delayed reactions of adrenaline.

" _Are you okay? What did you do? How'd you do that?!_ "

" _In no particular order, it's part of what I am and can do, I'll be fine, I'm just tired, and what I did was obvious, why are you asking obvious questions?_ "

He whined a little, and flopped down next to me, clearly not intending to move until I did. Midna sighed, but after a moment got out the food.

We pretty much slept there in the open; Link's gray and black fur made him look like a rock when he held still, so we were about as safe as we could get without finding an actual cave. At the advent of awareness, my strength more or less returned, we continued on.

"Is there a way up the river from down here?" Midna asked, glancing at me.

I looked around for a moment, then jerked my head a little; above us flew a shadow kargarok. All we had to do was lure it down.

Admittedly, easier said than done, but Link's tail-tip wagged slightly as he spotted the shadow bulbin. The bulbin spotted us at the same moment, and snatched up a nearby piece of grass, playing a squealing, high-pitched song that summoned the kargarok down to a level where the bulbin could jump on its back and use him as a mount.

It didn't last long; Link lured the kargaok down and jumped on it, knocking the bird to the ground to stun it, and the bulbin went flying from the saddle. I could hear the bulbin's neck snap from where I was standing, and had to admit to being impressed; I would never have expected the Hero to do such a thing. Typically, unmerciful killings fall to me.

Midna, once the saddle was free, and before the bird could regain its wits, jumped at the chance to take the bird over. It didn't appreciate that in the _slightest_.

"Hey now, settle down!" she snapped, sparking magic before its face to startle it. "I'm your master now!"

It made a sound much like a horn, but slowly settled. Midna grinned down at us.

"Let's use this thing to get up-river! Come on!"

" _This should be interesting..._ "

" _That's not comforting._ "

If I could have, I would have grinned at Link's obvious discomfort.

" _Well, we need to get up the river anyways, and this is probably the only way we'll make it. So we'll just have to put up with it._ "

He whined a little, then sighed in agreement. I leapt up into the saddle, finding purchase in the leather. Poor Link definitely got the short end of the stick on this one; he was held between the shadow kagarok's claws in a highly uncomfortable pose,

Shadow bulbin practically littered the dry riverbed, shooting at us with fire and bomb arrows alike, trying to knock us out of the sky. Scaffolding and stone fell around us even as the air grew colder, filled with an icy touch that made me remember another time, another place when Zora's domain had been forcefully frozen over.

Only this time, there was no Ruto to release the curse, nor any Sheik to save those trapped beneath the ice.

Ah, Sheik...

We made it, though it seemed just barely at the time, and the kargarok flew off once Midna was done with it.

"Well, that was nice and easy," she said. "But this clearly isn't the Zora village... we should hurry up and find it before it gets much colder!"

" _Why_ is _it so cold?_ " Link as as we picked our way down to the riverbed.

I just stayed silent, doing what I could to fight the memories back to silence; walking on the ice didn't much help, but the both of us had fur that defied the elements, so only our paw-pads had to suffer the ice.

Zora's Domain was a frozen wasteland, and the sight of it just about broke my heart.


	11. Ten

Ten

On a whole, I don't like the cold. I don't like snow, I don't like ice, and most of the time, I will claim that this is because I am from the desert, or because I am thin.

The truth is, I don't like the cold, the ice, or the snow because it scares me. It is the one thing that has come the closest to killing me without warning. I may not fear it the same as I fear heights, but I will never feel comfortable, or even slightly safe, when it comes to ice and snow.

So walking into Zora's Domain, once again frozen over, left me feeling numb, and awash in memories I could have well done without reliving. In the end, I sought high ground, outside Zora's domain, and stayed put. They could do it without me while I dealt with what I could.

I admit, I am not proud of this. But there are some things that I simply cannot face. A frozen Zora's Domain, knowing precisely where all my allies were, was one of them. I had no desire to see them trapped under the ice, flash-frozen in the spell. Midna, to her credit, said nothing when I left.

I stayed outside the domain, and waited, huddling near the singing stone. Link was clever, and even though she was still maturing, Midna was too. I knew they would find some way of restoring the water.

They found me there a few hours later, and Link whined a little, nudging up close. Midna looked pale, and shock still lingered in her eyes. I didn't need an explanation to know what they'd seen.

"We have to thaw them out," Midna said abruptly. "How, though?"

Link whined again, then sneezed, and curled up around me as close as he could. Whether it was for his comfort or mine, I'm not sure, but I admit to appreciating it either way.

Not even the strongest fire spell I could manage would melt that ice, not that I _could_ have managed it in the twilight. But as Midna pulled out the portal map, an idea seemed to occur to her.

"Hey, how fast does lava cool?"

I blinked, and lifted my head a little; she pointed to the portal on Death Mountain with a grin.

"I bet the Gorons could help~"

I sighed a little, but after thinking about it, that did seem like the most sensible option; even if they couldn't set foot in the twilight without being made into spirits again, surely they would have some ideas.

"Shall we warp?"

I looked at Link, who had picked up on my change of mood quickly, then placed my paw firmly over the portal marker for Death Mountain.

Really, I expected we'd have to talk directly to the elders and get advice. I did _not_ expect the rock spike that had almost skewered us to be still running hot enough to scorch the stone around it. I shed my furry form and carefully paced around the stone, eyeing it thoughtfully, and with the first real stirrings of hope.

" _It's been sitting here for a while, but it's still this hot?_ " Midna observed. " _I'd have thought it'd be long cool by now._ "

I nodded, staring up at it speculatively, then nodded again.

"This should work. Let's take it."

She grinned at me, then cast her spell, yanking the rock up into the air and sending it through the portal; abstractly, as she pulled us through again as well, I wondered what the Gorons would make of the suddenly vanished stone. It would certainly make for some amusing theories if nothing else.

The molten spike did exactly what it was supposed to do; the water practically _exploded_ out of the throne room as the source was melted, steaming hot water boiling away at the ice that blocked the flow.

Midna dropped us neatly at the edge of the throne room, and nodded, pleased. I allowed the shift back, though I wished I could walk among my allies, my friends, and reassure them in some manner. There were so many Zora perched, coughing, gasping, shaking on the edges of the waterfall pool...

"That thing came in really handy, I'm impressed," Midna said with a grin. "And now that we've helped the Zoras, and restored the water flow, we can go meet the last spirit!"

I could hardly argue her point, though I wasn't really looking forward to seeing if I could swim in this form.

~ _Wait!_ ~

It was not the call of a spirit, but it was a voice I knew all too well. My heart sank as I turned to view the _real_ spirit in the room.

Queen Rutela.

~ _Please, you must allow me to thank you for this. Not only have you restored my people, you restored the spring that brings water and life to the people of Hyrule._ ~

Link whine a little.

" _No, it's all right. This... this is Rutela. She was their queen,_ " I said somberly, turning to face the ghost of a friend. " _She's not going to hurt us._ "

"Not to be rude, but we didn't do it because of you," Midna said. Her tone was actually quite polite, and I slanted her a sideways glance, wondering just what was going through her mind.

~ _I understand... and I wish to ask a favor of you. When the shadow beasts raided the village, they executed me as a warning to my people. I was able to get my son out, and he was to head to the castle to inform Princess Zelda of what had befallen us._ ~

I winced a little; I knew where this was going.

~ _I fear that danger has followed him, however. I can sense that his presence grows weaker and weaker, though one of our allies has helped him to her best effort._ ~

Rutela smiled at me, but it was a worried smile. I could hardly blame her; she was dead, and she could no more risk her life for Ralis than she could swim in the water with her people once more.

~ _Would you please, in my stead, save my dearest Prince Ralis? If you would do this for me,I will grant you the protection of water; a gift that will allow you to breathe and swim as though you were Zora yourself. Please..._ ~ Her voice faded as she did. ~ _Save my son..._ ~

"Well, that would be useful,wouldn't it? Being able to do all the things a Zora can. What do you say, Hero?" Midna teased, patting Link's sides playfully. "Though I suppose you can't exactly meet a prince in _this_ shape, so I guess we should go about returning your world to what it's supposed to be."

" _How are we going to do this?_ " Link asked me.

" _Telma. When we lift the twilight here, we'll go to Telma's Bar, and get her to let us take the boy._ "

" _Can we bring him all the way up here?_ "

" _No. But we don't have to. We just have to get him to Kakariko._ "

Link nodded a little, trusting me, and we turned towards the water.

Because of the molten rock now residing in the spring, the water was running high and fast, as if making up for its previous utter lack. And the sudden release of moisture into the air seemed to have triggered a cloudburst as well, which did very little to help.

"Since this runs all the way to the lake, why don't we let it carry us?" Midna asked gleefully.

" _Is this a good idea?_ "

"... _no. No it is not. Unfortunately, it's probably the only thing we can do._ "

Link looked at me, then whined a little.

" _Just keep your face above the water as best you can_ " I said grimly. " _No drowning allowed_."

I was no more ready for this than he was, but we both jumped in, and let the water yank us downstream. I _could_ swim, but the river was not so friendly or steady; it pushed me under with a will, and more than once I felt Midna's magic plucking me out before I got swept away.

The rush of water eased right around the steps up to the spirit spring, and we dragged ourselves out, bedraggled and exhausted, then collapsed at the top step, into sleep. Midna was... less than pleased by this, and let us know as soon as we both were awake.

"Really, aren't you two up yet?" she complained. "The water dropped us right where we needed to be, and you just wasted hours on sleep! And I suppose you want food now too?"

Link nodded; I stretched, claws out in an 'innocent' display of threat. Midna made a faintly disgusted sound, but brought out the food for us to eat.

" _It's not like we don't know what the spirit wants,_ " Link said between bites.

" _Ah, let her have the hissy fit,_ " I replied. " _I think she was worried about us, and she doesn't show that well._ "

" _Hmph._ "

I couldn't help but be amused by Link's seeming pout.

Like the other spirits, Lanaryu was a weak collection of golden light, far softer than Eldin had been.

~ _You have... done well, chosen... hero. Please... gather my light... in this._ ~

There was no second tier, no littler waterfall in Lanayru's pool. But like a fish jumping up, the vessel of light appeared, and Link quickly helped me pull it on.

~ _The dark insects... have scattered far. I will... mark them on your... map._ ~

Lanayru had not been joking; the bugs were scattered not just up and down the river and lake, but into the town as well. It took us several days worth of effort, even with teleportation. Flying up the river facing bulbin on the shadow kargarok; stalking and pouncing the ones in Zora's Domain while around us the Zora searched for their lost prince. Facing down shadow beats who blocked us, both at the lake, and at the entrance to the castle.

We caught all the ones marked on the map... but the vessel was not yet full. Midna frowned, and pulled out the map again with a confused noise.

"We got all of those, and all of those... so where's the last one?"

Slowly, as if struggling to life, the last dot appeared in the area of Lake Hylia.

"Oh. Huh! How'd we miss that one? That's just weird..."

Back to Lake Hylia we went, and the air felt... tense. Expectant, perhaps? There was a feeling to the air the made my fur want to stand on end, and seeing as the bug was right out in the middle of the lake, I was not about to go out and get it. The rain, at least, had stopped.

" _Have fun_ ," I said dryly.

Link laid his ears back and gave me something of a woeful look.

" _Oh no, don't look at me. I'm not taking human form, and I'm not going out into the deep water like this any more than I already have. You got this, puppy. All yours._ "

He heaved a mournful sigh, then jumped into the water and swam towards the bug.

Did I feel guilty? Maybe a little. But I was tired of being soaking wet, and something about the way the water was moving out there didn't give me any good feelings. Link, with his bulk, was a much better choice for biting this bug.

In the end, I was glad to have given him the duty of it too; this big was not the small ones we were used to. This bug was _massive_. It took him and Midna a good ten minutes to figure out how to beat it, not just dodge its attacks.

When they did, the last drop of light-laced water flew to me as though it was magnetized. While I could have run straight into the shrine, I waited for poor Link to drag himself onto the stairs and shake himself off before we went in, and I dropped the vessel into Lanayru's pool.

At least, as the twilight receded, my full power was returned to me. I could have danced for the joy of it, really, but I refrained, only allowing myself a long, relieved sigh as the sand cat form was banished once more in favor of my own two feet.

" _Now, be sure to get that last Fused Shadow for me~_ " Midna said with a giggle, before vanishing once more into the shadows.

Before Link could say anything, the orb of light appeared... but Lanayru did not so much spawn around it as it did leap up to grab it in its mouth. I laughed a little at the Hero's surprise; admittedly, of all my spirits, I do love Lanaryu the best. It is the one closest matched to my personality, with none of my particular emotional hang ups.

"All right, Lanayru, enough playing around," I said in gentle reproof as the giant water dragon churned through the pool, clearly delighted to once more be back to they way it was meant to be. "We need to talk now."

Obligingly, it came up to be of a height with us, nudging me fondly as it did so.

~ _Your efforts have proven fruitful, chosen hero, and have restored the light to this world,_ ~ it said, addressing Link who still looked slightly stunned. ~ _And now you seek the last of the sealed powers our mother has hidden away, in the temple below the surface of the lake._ ~

Link nodded firmly, and I felt the spirit's attention shift to me. I let out a slow breath, then nodded fractionally.

 _Show him, Lanayru. Show him the dangers of this power that I am allowing Midna to hold._

~ _Before you do, you must bear witness... you must remember. Our mother locked these pieces of shadow away for a reason._ ~

I watched as Link fell into the trance that would show him the past. Lanayru's words were, in that moment, for the Hero alone, but I knew well what warnings, what images, were being shared; the birth of the world, the calm, and then the desire of the people for the power of the Triforce. The wars that tore the land again and again.

The edict from the goddesses, and what I had done to protect the world. I held a fleeting hope that Lanayru would not directly indicate that I had a hand in it; as much as I had done, as much as I had lived, I had no desire for Link to realize everything I was in that moment.

I watched his expression, and saw the precise moment Link returned to himself. The shock of it made him limp, and he fell to his knees, panting for breath, pale and sweating. When he looked up at me his eyes were wide, and there was a new level of fear in them.

"I know," I said, sitting down next to him. "It's not easy. It never has been. The fact that power corrupts so thoroughly is not lost as a lesson to the ages. It is witnessed by Hyrule again and again. But the wise, and the courageous bring balance to power, and temperance."

Even as a child in my first life, I had known this fact. I had never let it go, and had only come to accept it more and more as the centuries passed.

"How... how do you...?"

"How do I live with it?" I smiled thinly. "By realizing that I am not perfect. No one is. All we can do is try our best from day to day. Some days will be harder than others. Some days, you won't even want to get out of bed. And that's all right. Taking time to remind yourself of who you are _now_ , is not a bad thing."

He nodded slowly, and closed his eyes for a moment, slowing his panicked breathing.

"But... what if you don't know who you are now?" he asked finally.

"That's all right too. Look, you've had a lot of things thrown at you over the past weeks; you turned into a wolf, you've befriended Gorons, you found your horse, and your friends. You've witnessed what damage a dangerous power can do. It takes some time to process changes like this, and you certainly haven't had any of that."

"...I made a new friend too," he said, and smiled shyly at me.

I half-smiled back, and lightly patted his shoulder as I got up. I wasn't going to admit it there, but that helped me feel just a little better about the madness we were about to participate in. Call it instinct or memory, or what have you, but I knew that this wasn't just going to end with the Fused Shadows.

"Come on, Hero. As much as I'd like to give you time to process, we've still got a Zora prince to save. I'd prefer to do it sooner rather than later."

"Right!"

He nodded firmly and jumped to his feet, and we headed out into early evening sunlight to start the next leg of work.

There are paths up from Lake Hylia to the surrounding plains. They aren't easy to climb, but they do exist, and they are much _less_ disturbing than Fyer's cannon. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that we had the time, so it was to the old man we went, to get launched up to the cuckoo farm that his friend ran.

Really, the less said on that, the better. I hate the cannons.

Once on the plains, Link called the horses; he jumped about a foot when they actually showed up, despite us having left them on the opposite side of the realm, more or less. Magic may only work in small ways these days, but that spell has never failed... and every now and again, I have to indulge in just a _bit_ of mischief.

It took us only a day and a half with the horses, to get to the city, though we had to leave them in the stable outside of town; not even nobility rode within the walls, there was simply too much foot traffic, and not enough room. Fortunately, I had been to Telma's bar many times before, so where Link was overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle, I simply towed him along until we reached the relatively calm back corner of town, and the bar.

"Remember, don't rush her," I said firmly. You don't want to scare the girl."

He nodded obediently, and we stepped in. Right into the middle of an argument, it seemed.

"This is a _Zora_ child!" came the rasping whine of the doctor. "I can't treat a Zora!"

Quickly, I moved aside, pulling Link with me as the doctor stomped straight for the door. He didn't even spare us a glance before he slammed it behind him, even as Ilia tried to chase after.

"Oh please! If something... isn't done..."

It was no use. And the moment was made worse when she glanced at Link and showed absolutely no recognition. I wasn't looking at his face, but I was close enough to feel him go limp in confusion.

"Raiha, sweetheart!"

"Hey Telma,"I smiled a little, stepping forward. "Having a tough time of things?"

"Oh honey... you have no idea,"the larger woman sighed a little. "You're a Zora friend, is there anything you can do for him? This girl here found him collapsed in an ally, and that _useless_ doctor..."

"I heard," and my voice was dry as I stepped over to Ralis. "But just from looking... Mn..."

I moved in and Link followed, trailing wounded feelings like a kicked puppy. Something was wrong with the girl as well, but Ralis' problem was genuinely life-threatening; given the choice between the two, the little prince had more of my attention.

"I can't fix him," I said, reaching out a hand that lowed faintly with golden light. "Not here, anyways. Lanayru's spring might help, but it'll be better if we can take him to Kakariko, and let Renado care for him. You have a cart, right?"

Ilia's head jerked up, and she stared first at me, then at Telma.

"Oh really? We can take him?"

"Mmn... It'll be almost two weeks, and that's the best possible speed for a wagon."

"Why so long?" Telma asked.

"The bridge out the east gate collapsed. And there's a chunk that's clean gone from the Eldin bridge too," I said grimly.

"Oh... dear..."

Ilia sounded so suddenly uncertain that I almost laughed.

"That's putting it mildly. Telma, you and this girl here should get ready to leave as soon as I'm done."

"Nonsense! This trip is much too dangerous for ladies to undertake!"

I bristled, getting to my feet; I loomed a head taller then all the guardsmen, who were lined up at the bar, looking—or trying to look—brave while brandishing their spears.

"We could hardly ignore pretty girls in distress, however! Therefore, we should accompany you! Right boys!"

The cheer the five men set up was raucous enough to show that they had clearly been drinking. Telma glanced at me, her eyebrows raised, and lips pursed thoughtfully. I scowled, and shook my head a little; guardsmen weren't trained riders, and we would have to move _fast_. These were also soft men, used to patrolling around town, and breaking up drunken fights at worst. They wouldn't have lasted ten minutes in a real fight.

"Well, now aren't we lucky," she said with a smile, her voice smooth. "They'll make a fine escort for crossing the two plains full of dangerous beings. Bulbins, if I'm not mistaken, and kargarok, among other nasty little things."

The way the cheer abruptly died almost made me laugh.

"We should be especially safe now, huh?~"

"Ah..." Ilia's eyes widened a little as the pattering of feet sounded; toa man, the guards had run. Link looked like he was torn between laughing and sighing. I smirked a little.

"Well done, my friend," I snickered a little.

"It's disappointing how many of the soldiers around here are just cowards... is the lad with you, then?"

"Mmhm."

"Then honey, you get ready to go," she said to Ilia. "Raiha?"

"Shouldn't take too long to stabilize him. Don't bite the Hero."

She laughed her warm, rich laugh, and stepped over to Link, starting a low conversation with him. I turned back to Ralis, and took the seat Ilia had vacated, closing my eyes for better concentration; this was going to take some work.

 _Lanayru, Eldin._

 _We hear, our mother._

 _I need to stabilize Princes Ralis, and keep him in a state that's fit to make the journey to Kakariko. Show me the spell, and lend me the power._

I knew what I asked for was not a light piece of work; Ralis as he as wouldn't last halfway through the journey, even if he was kept properly damp. I needed a way to keep him stable, without scaring the people who weren't used to showy magics. I needed a stasis spell that was not going to show outside of his skin.

I suppose you are wondering, whoever you are, why I did not simply just heal Ralis. In truth, Renado is actually _better_ at it than I am. Humans are easy enough for me, but both Zora and Gorons have a different structure to them, a different method of recovery. And while I have been a long-standing ally of both, trusted in many things, that was always one area where I was never allowed. And because I value my allies, and there was never a reason to pry or press, I did not.

This ban has since been lifted, but I am ever grateful that I have not needed this new swathe of skills. I suspect half the reason was because I simply wasn't _there_ so often. Renado was, and they came to him when their need was great.

The casting of the spell was not necessarily time intensive, but it required focus and finesse, both of which I had in abundance now that the guards had fled. And more importantly, I could feel the difference in Ralis; he was not healed, no, but he was not likely to die any time soon either, not unless someone managed to strip _all_ my power from me. Given that this was an impossible prospect, he was as safe as I could make him.

Link was standing by me when the spell finished, hands clasped uneasily in front of him.

"Telma said to tell you that she's gone to hitch up the horse and cart, and when you're done, lock the door and come to the west gate," he recited.

"All right. Well, I'm done. What's the matter?"

"Ilia..." He looked distressed and unhappy. "She has amnesia..."

"Mmn. Well, it's good she's coming with us then,"I said, carefully picking up the unconscious Zora prince. "Renado might be able to help her too. Get the door, will you? Did she take any supplies with her?"

"She said she was going to purchase some, and get barrels of water from the fountain now that it's running again."

"Good. Spell or not, Ralis should be kept damp; Zora aren't meant to be in an arid environment like this."

Of course, Castletown has nothing on the desert, in terms of arid, but this was bad enough. At least they seemed to have taken the hint from the magically falling water glass; while not the proper level of moist, Ralis was certainly not dry either.

Boxes and bags filled the wagon, save for one spot tucked into a secure corner where Ralis was laid on a wet blanket. Ilia, seemingly not being a rider, was going to sit with him and keep an eye on his health, and switch off driving during the day with Telma, while Link and I rode guard on either side.

The first two days were only minorly incidental; the occasional kargarok would get curious and swoop down, only to be chased off by an arrow, or Link's slingshot. It wasn't until we reached Hylia Bridge that we found our first marker of serious trouble. I stared at the bulbin leader blocking the bridge.

"I thought we killed that thing!"

"Me too," Link said unhappily.

"Tch... He thinks he's clever," I frowned a little. "Those large shileds make it impoosible to hit him with your sword..."

"How do we get past him then?"

I thought for a moment, then nodded. I was in no mood to be polite, and this fool thing had cheated death once already. It was not going to happen a second time.

"We do this _my_ way. Here. Hold her."

I dismounted, knowing I would be faster on my own two feet, no matter how fleet Windchaser was.

"Raiha, honey, what're you doing?" Telma called, worry clear in her voice.

"Clearing the road."

"But that thing will-"

"I'll be _fine_. Just get ready to cross."

"Are...are you sure?" Link asked.

"I'm not going to play nice. That's the son of a dear friend in that cart, and I am done with games," I said grimly.

 _Lanayru,I require aid._

As I stepped onto the bridge,the magic of the spirit fountained up within me, casting a golden halo that was only just noticeable in the dawn light. From across the bridge, I heard the squeal of the battle boar as it was goaded into a charge, from behind me I heard Ilia cry out in fright.

And then I called the spells to life.

Nayru's Love shielded me from top to toe, just in case I didn't dodge fast enough, a skintight glowing blue shield that brought to mind the hot desert sands, and the ancient palace that had once house Gerudo treasures. Farore's Wind swirled before me, waiting direction to be unleashed; it was far more powerful than the Gale Boomerang, and much more versatile.

To the waiting tornado, I added Din's Fire. A flash of memory came tome then; the Fire Temple lost in a devastating eruption of Death Mountain, and the Flare Dancers that had almost taken my life. The beauty and terror of facing Volvagia...

I took a breath, heard the panicked sounds of a boar forced to run forwards when it would rather be going in the opposite direction, and turned the magic loose.

The fiery tornado whooshed across the bridge, following the only possible path, directly to the leader. Fire seared it and the boar as it lifted them aloft, and then dumped them off the bridge before dissipating as thought they had never been. From far, far below came two loud splashes. After a moment I nodded in grim satisfaction, and turned to walk back to my allies.

 _Thank you, Lanayru._

There was a sense of concern from the spirit, no doubt for my state of mind; I am brutal, and I am ruthless, but only when I need to be. In this case, I was also moderately desperate. I wanted to get Ralis to someone who _could_ heal him, far better than I, and sooner was much better than later, stasis spell or not.

Link was staring, I couldn't tell if he was in awe, or afraid. Telma had the set look I knew that meant she was worried about what I'd just done, but also moderately approved of it. As for Ilia, she had her head down and appeared to be tending to Ralis.

I simply swung myself back up into the saddle, and we continued on our way.

Of course, after the bridge, it stopped being easy. A gate I hadn't expected forced us to stop while I picked the lock, and it took me almost two hours; it was a surprisingly well made one, considering the locks on the other gates had been full of rust and crap. We guarded the wagon at night in shifts to keep the bulbin and more aggressive kargarok off us. During the day, kargarok picked up bombskits and tried to spook the horses with them, and we suffered more attack by bulbin archers with their flaming arrows.

I lost track of the number of times I or Link used harsh winds to swiftly douse the fires that scorched the canvas covering, shot kargarok, and killed bulbin and their boars. Never had I been so glad to reach the narrow canyon that took us to Kakariko, safety, and a chance to _breathe_.


	12. Eleven

Eleven

The hardest part of injury or illness befalling a friend or ally is the waiting. I've done an awful lot of waiting. For news, for information... most of the time, if I get tired of waiting, I can go and see for myself.

I was, at least,managing to maintain a more casual pose than Link and Colin, who were both overtly hovering around the doorway to the room where Renado was tending to Ralis. It helped that, even though I had released him from stasis, I could still sense him clinging to life.

Renado's steps were soft as he exited the room; Link and Colin's eagerness was anything but.

"He has passed through the worst of it," Renado said as I joined the group. "With rest, he will recover in due time."

"Good," I smiled a little. "That's very good."

"Do you know the fate of his mother? Her welfare consumes him, and he has been mumbling deliriously about her almost constantly."

I grimaced, and Link flinched a little. Renado's expression turned sad and understanding.

"Ah. Then it is not a good answer... the knowledge must grieve you both."

That was a decided understatement. Rutela had been a wise and gracious queen, and she'd had many years of life left in her. And Ralis was still very young by Zora standards, not even a teenager.

"I'll stay with him until he's better," Colin proclaimed. "No matter how long it takes!"

The cheery determination of the boy who had found his courage lifted the somber air, and we three adults shared a smile before Renado went to one knee, and patted Colin's shoulder.

"Is that so?" the shaman asked with a smile. "Thank you, Colin."

He would have company, at least; both Luda and Ilia, still bereft of memories, would undoubtedly be staying as well. In my opinion, this was a good place for Ilia to stay; it was not Ordon, but the children all remembered her, and hopefully in time they would be able to jog _her_ memory as well.

"We've got a ways yet to go," I said, breaking the silence that had fallen. "We'd best get back to it, Link."

Link sighed a little, then nodded, and we headed out of the Inn to where Telma waited; Colin followed, and uncertainly cleared his throat before anyone spoke in the early evening air.

"Link... about Ilia..."

Link's expression fell,and I sighed a little; of course the child would bring this up.

"Is it true? She really don't remember anything?"

Renado made us all jump when he spoke; sneaky shaman had clearly been practicing his silent walking.

"It is," he answered before Link could speak. "She has lost her memories, and regaining them will not be a simple task."

Colin's expression turned upset as well, like he wanted to cry.

"It's not as hopeless as it sounds," I interjected. "Right now, we should let time do with it can, and see if anything comes back in bits and pieces. It may happen that she'll remember all on her own."

"But... but what if she doesn't?" he asked, biting his lower lip slightly.

"She has all of you around, doesn't she?" I pointed out, trying to keep my voice gentle over brisk; Colin, for all his bravery, was a sensitive child, and responded better to gentle encouragement.

"Yes," Renado nodded a little. "And for this, I'd like to ask you to remain here a while longer. It's our turn to show the courage you have already displayed."

The encouragement seemed to be precisely what he needed; his small shoulders straightened, and his head lifted, a determined look crossing his face before it turned into a smile. With a firm nod, he rushed back into the Inn, clearly ready to help.

I chuckled a little; it was always amazing how quickly children could recover with just the right amount of encouragement. Renado smiled as well, then bowed lightly and left, heading back to his home.

"It's nice to see there's hope still," Telma commented idly from where she leaned on the railing. "And nice to see good results for your efforts. You two did an amazing job, you know...I hadn't thought to get so lucky."

"Well, you know me,"I said dryly. "Always turning up to help at the last plausible second."

She chuckled, and Link grinned a little.

"So then, you're still part of the group?"

"As if I could be anything else."

"And you, Link?"she turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "I see you're working with her, but would you like to turn your skills towards helping Hyrule as a whole?"

He looked startled for a moment, then nodded quickly. Telma's smile broadened, and warmed considerably.

"Wonderful. My bar is a meeting place for a small group of people who don't work with the authority of the crown, but we still do our best to help keep the hope alive in this kingdom. I'll send out letters from here and get everyone together..."

"Staying here for a bit?"I asked dryly.

"Well, I'm worried about Ilia, and..." she slanted her eyes away, in the direction Renado had gone. "Never mind about the rest. Anyways, I hope to see the pair of you in my bar again! We'll meet there, as always."

I snorted a little as she stepped neatly around us and moved to catch up to Renado, shaking my head a little in resignation.

"Is she... always like that?" Link asked.

"Yup. Telma's very gregarious and prone to going directly after what she wants," I said with a faintly amused shrug. "Of course, whether or not Renado warms up to her is another story; he's much more reserved than she is."

"What's this... group she was talking about?"

"Mmn... There's four core members, not counting Telma or myself. That bar has been a meeting area for them for a long while, but really, there's pockets of people like them in every town or village hereabout. They just want Hyrule to be safe, and the people happy, though there's often not a lot of consensus on how it works. And despite what she might think, Zelda does know about it; they do good enough work for the people that they have tacit permission to keep it up, otherwise that bar wouldn't be there."

"But... they're a good group?"

I nodded a little, and motioned for him to follow me down the steps; we had only a small amount of daylight left, and I wanted to get moving.

"I've vetted each and every person who's in a position of leadership. They are a very good group, and if ever an emergency rises, there's an old passage that can take us through to the castle. I've used it-"

I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and put a hand to my sword hilt as I turned. Link felt the same, and was doing similar, though we both relaxed as Rutela's spirit smile benevolently down at us. Once assured of our attention, she beckoned, and drifted off, leading us through the deepening twilight towards the graveyard.

True night fell as we negotiated the gravestones and were led to the large boulder that blocked the end of the graveyard. Carved with the symbol of the spiritual stone of water, Rutela gestured slightly, then faded through the wall; the boulder glowed blue green, and then crumbled away into dust, revealing a tunnel that led to a hidden grotto. A shortcut of sorts that would lead us through to Lake Hylia.

Link stared around, and I smiled a little; this was a vast improvement over what had been here so long before. A place of pain and death had been replaced by the running water of life, and the tranquility of the grotto was soothing.

Across the small lake, Rutela hovered by a gravestone that I only vaguely recognized; I had not been privy to the Zora King's funeral, but I had helped to retrieved the stone they had used to carve his grave. It was covered now, by moss, and worn a little with time, but the carvings still stood out strong and clear, a testament to the love the Zoras had of their ruling family.

~ _Thank you for aiding my son, my friends,_ ~ Rutela's voice was not so much a voice now as it was the sound of the water itself. ~ _Bringing him to our sacred place was for the best; this land is where we have chosen to take our eternal rest. My husband in life lies here, and it is no coincidence that this is where Ralis found his salvation._ ~

Link, somewhat overwhelmed, just bowed a little, cheeks red in the ambient light the full moon cast.

~ _That which I promised lies here, under this gravestone_ ~ she continued. ~ _During his life, at the behest of our longest ally, he crafted garments for the hero that was to be. These garments house the abilities of the Zora._ ~

With a gesture, the stone slid back, revealing the Zora armor. Link hesitantly stepped forward, then glanced at me.

"But..."

"I have a set," I replied. "Don't fuss. Just take it."

He did, after another uncertain moment, then glanced up at the long sigh of relief Rutela released.

~ _And now, at last,I can join my husband in his rest. Though... my son still knows nothing of my death._ ~ She paused briefly, even as her spirit began to fade. ~ _When you see him next, please pass on a message; tell him he must not grieve my passing. Tell him that he must be brave and live on, to be the ruler our people need. And... that I love him. Without end..._ ~ her form faded, and her voice too. ~ _Please tell him..._ ~

Link nodded, and I bowed, even though Rutela was no longer around to see it. Then I sighed a little, straightening.

"It's too late to go anywhere now. Let's go to one of the empty houses and get some rest, and we can move on in the morning."

Link nodded with a yawn, and we returned to the village, bedding down in an empty house. He fell asleep quickly, but I felt too restless, and ended up sitting awake for a while longer.

" _So, we found his friends, and now he's got some nifty armor. Do you really have some nifty armor too?_ " Midna asked, popping up for a chat.

"I have pieces of the nifty armor that will come in handy," I replied a bit dryly.

" _And we're going after the Fused Shadow? I mean, it's been long enough, hasn't it?_ "

"In the morning, yes. So if you've got a speech prepared about how we'll need them to win, you can pretend that you've already given it."

She blinked a little, then giggled.

" _You know, you're not so bad, for a mysterious light-worlder._ "

"Thanks. I think."

She grinned, and propped her hands behind her head.

" _So then, what plans do you have for after we get the last shadow? You must have_ something _. You're too sneaky to not._ "

"...still working on that," I admitted after a minute, frowning faintly. "I can guess where Ganondorf is hiding, since he's always wanted control of Hyrule, but before him, we have to take out the puppet, Zant. And him... him I'm not sure of. Do you have any ideas?"

" _Well, we haven't seen much of the shadow beasts lately... It could be that once you ripped the last of the twilight away he went back to our realm_."

I grimaced.

"Yeah, that would be the path I was hoping he _wouldn't_ take... No offense,I'm sure the Twili realm had become really quite impressive, but if I can avoid it, I'd prefer to."

" _Scared?_ "

I just sighed.

"No. But I'm not ready to face it."

She stared at me as the silence grew thicker. After a moment I sighed again and shook my head.

"There's a long story that I'm not ready to relate. Ask me another day."

She stared at me for a few minutes longer, her visible eye narrowed thoughtfully, then shrugged in a nonchalant manner and vanished. I did my best to get some sleep, and the next thing I knew, cuckoos were calling the rise of the sun.

Barnes had made a new type of bomb in the time we'd been gone; the underwater bomb. And since I wasn't inclined to waste time, once we'd retrieved them, we changed into the Zora armor—mine was much more minimal than Link's, though it still did the job—and I headed for the shortcut thought the grotto.

"You _do_ know how to swim, right?"

"Yes!"

I had to smile wryly at the enthusiastic answer.

"All right then. Follow me, and we'll go visit the Lakebed Temple."

A trip that would have taken almost a week on land was cut to two days thanks to a fast running current that deposited us neatly at the far end of Lake Hylia. I won't lie, it always takes some getting used to, breathing water instead of air, and swimming for hours at a time, but I always much prefer being in the water. Sounds are both more muffled and somehow carry better, and while it's dark at great depths, there's always some amazing things to be seen as well.

I don't know that poor Link enjoyed it as much as I did, but he pressed gamely on when I gestured, and we headed down to the depths of the lake, where the temple, and the patrolling Zora waited.

Now, for the record, I love the Zora race. They are not as welcoming as the Gorons, perhaps, but once you are welcomed, you are treated as family. The good sort of family; like the Gorons, the Zora and I get along very well, and I am always more at peace with them than I am anywhere else.

However, they have a very bad habit when it comes to their places of worship, their temples. Because the Zora are lovers of puzzles and logic. When the Lakebed Temple had been the Water Temple, Ruto had tried for years to clear out the corruption that infested it, but go nowhere until the Hero of Time and I arrived. The Lakebed Temple itself was a different sort of trials, puzzles and challenges, but make no mistake, it was very _Zora_ in execution.

Just to get in required finding the switch to open the gates that had been sealed, since with the destabilization of the Fused Shadow, the creatures within had changed from mostly benign and small to large and aggressive.

And that was just the ones _in_ the water. Out of the water, there were dynalfos with their spiked tails and swift recoveries, helmasaur—though they were easily tricked into walls and over edges—chu worms who hid themselves in giant bubbles of water, and of course the skullfish who infested the waters and liked to take bites out of the unwary.

There was a staircase that turned, blocked waterways, oh, and I can't forget that there was a giant _Deku Toad_ that had made itself very comfortable in one of the treasure rooms that we had to kill so we could retrieve the clawshot. Granted, that one is hard _to_ forget, even after ten years.

Let me tell you, a giant toad coming down from the ceiling, hard enough to put dents in the floor, is not a fun thing to fight. Especially not when it liked to rain its offspring, toados, from above. And with all the water being splashed around, my fire spells were useless, so we ended up having to find out how to kill it the old-fashioned way; lots of blind luck.

So much effort, just to get into the central chamber where I had left the Fused Shadow secured in the purity of the water. If I had to guess, we took almost a week to traverse the temple from top to bottom, doing everything we could to clear out what didn't belong, and restore the temple. Though I didn't wear them, Link's Iron boots quite often came in handy as well.

A few Zora had tentatively started to enter by the time we were ready to retrieve the Shadow, and stood as both witness and guard as I pulled the magic off the door, then undid the more mundane combination look that allowed the gate to sink into the floor.

"Ready?"

Link looked at me, then at the Zora, some of whom were swimming around the central chamber with delight. Judging by his expression, he was imagining what might happen to them if he said no. Dramatic, but also sweet; the Fused Shadow already _had_ a host from what I could sense, but as long as it lingered here, the trouble would return. After a long moment, he nodded, and pulled up the mask that allowed him to breathe underwater.

Down we plunged, hitting the water with a firm—thankfully not painful—slap. Were it not for the Zora's ability to see in extremely low levels of light, it would have seemed pitch black in there, as we sank towards the sandy bottom.

Ten decorative pillars took shape from the gloom as we swam down, some luminescent fish played among the strands of seaweed, and coral. Were it not for the steadily increasing weight of discomfort, it could have been genuinely idyllic; it _was_ a place of Zora worship, more or less.

We stopped short of a divot in the sand, and Link put on the iron boots again, sinking until he could stand firmly on the bottom. I kept my distance with caution and care; the lone tentacle that rose from the sand reminded me entirely too much of Morpha, and I had no desire to relive that memory.

As Link stepped close, the heavy footfalls echoing through the water, the similarities did not stop. A strange eye appeared, and traveled up the tentacle, looking around; first it saw Link,and then me, then vanished back down to its main body. More tentacles sprouted from the round, like demented seaweed, and were followed by a creature similar to a deku like, all jaws and teeth.

At least, that was how it started; the tentacles lashed out, seeking to ensnare either one of us, and the eye traveled all about them, much as Morpha's strange nucleus had. Unlike my first encounter with a cursed being who moved like this, I managed to avoid it, my body jerking back and out of reach far faster than my mind registered.

It was Link who figured out how to win;or rather, how to bait the full creature out of the sand; he grabbed the eye with the clawshot, yanked it into reach, and gave it a sharp, vicious jab. Purple blood spilled out into the water, and the tentacle housing the eye jerked back, the eye vanishing back into the strange body. With a rumble of displaced sand, the _real_ body of the creature rushed up.

It was all mouth, with the eyes at the top of its head, and a long, plated, sinuous body, much like a snake. The tentacles streamed back along its body as it cut through the water, sending low-level jolts of electricity through whatever was unfortunately enough to draw near.

But with the sight of the real creature, a plan was easy to form. It took the creature some time to turn, and in that time we agreed on what was about to happen, though in Link's case it was a very reluctant agreement. Since he had the clawshot, he was the one who was going to have the best shot at actually killing the creature. He would have plenty of chances, since I was going to lead the thing around in circles until he did.

There is something to be said for having stamina to swim for _days_ at a time.

I made a sound that was similar to what a loud, attention-getting whistle on dry land would be, waited for the thing to orient on me, and then swam hard and fast.

I admit, when you know you cannot die, it's easier to agree to lay your life on the line. It cannot curb all fears, and knowing that I would still be weeks in recovering,magic or not, if the thing managed to get me in its mouth, kept me moving at all due speed, but I was not afraid of what might happen.

 _Link_ , however, had not been gifted with this knowledge. I admit, I was using his fear of my injury to provoke him into doing what was necessary. Did I need to? Probably not. I still did it anyways, and was swiftly rewarded for my manipulations.

It took several hits before the sword was able to properly pierce through the creatures' hide, and naturally when it finally did, the damned thing got the last laugh. At least as far as destruction of the central cathedral of the Zora went. It plowed headlong into the base of the wall, hard enough to crack it through; all the water rushed out rapidly, dropping us both to the damp, sandy ground and abruptly into air that smelled of fish.

I will admit that my body was tired after several rounds of 'ring around the cathedral' and I ended up sitting down while the body twitched, the power of the Fused Shadow attempting to reanimate it, with no success; whatever vital point Link had hit, the thing was _quite_ dead.

"Are you okay?"Link asked, dropping down beside me with a wince.

"I could sleep for a week," I replied. "Maybe two."

He laughed a little, sympathetically. No doubt if I was tired, he had to be as well; lighter under the water or not, iron boots are still iron boots, and they have never been the easiest things to walk around in.

" _Can_ we?"

"...well, with this being the end of it," for now, I did not say, though everything in me was telling that this was most certainly _not_ the end of _anything,_ "we could probably relax for a couple of days at the least. Regain our strength before we have to jump headlong into finding out where Zant is hiding and bringing the fight to him first, and then Ganondorf."

If Ganondorf occupied someone else, the fight would theoretically be easier. It plausibly wouldn't even require the Master Sword... At least, at the time that was my hope. I know better now, and should have known better then; _any_ fight involving Ganondorf will ultimately require the Master Sword.

We sat there for another ten minutes, just catching our breath. When I caught myself starting to doze off, I levered myself to my feet with a tired groan, then reached out and pulled.

The third piece was the smallest, ironically enough. But small did not necessarily mean lacking in power,and of the pieces, the giant fish had given us the most trouble.

"All right Midna, here's the last one," I said wearily.

She popped up and grabbed it, her eye shining in glee.

" _Now then, we have to do something about Zant, don't we?_ " she said. " _He who_ thinks _he's king of the shadows. His power is a fake as he is, and these will let me_ prove _it._ "

"Just... be careful," I said after a minute as Link pushed himself upright with a tired groan. "You're magical enough, it's true, but this isn't just magic, this is _power_ , and if it can, it'll try and rule you like it ruled them so long ago."

" _Hmph. Well, I've done everything here that I needed to do_ ," There was a pause as she glanced between us, then looked away, as though she were embarrassed. " _Sorry about making you come everywhere with me..._ "

I blinked; the apology had surprised me, even as it pleased me. Midna had matured over the past weeks, seeing more to our world than she had originally known was there. It was proof of her growth that she apologized, even as gruff as the apology was.

" _Well, come on then, let's get out of here!_ " she ordered.

I snorted a little, and Link grinned a bit tiredly. The moment fled as swiftly as it had come and we made our weary way to Midna, and her portal.

And if I had known what would greet us on the other side, fish-smell or not, I would have insisted we rest first.


	13. Twelve

Twelve

Midna deposited us with greater care than usual on the stone protrusion over Lanayru's waters. The spring was dimly lit, and the spirit itself seemed to have no words that we needed to hear, so after a moment we turned to walk out.

Had I not been so tired, I would have sensed the ice of Ganondorf's power instantly, no matter what body it was housed in.

Link and I stopped short in mutual shock at the robed, masked figure of Zant. On instinct alone, even slightly panicked as we were in no way prepared for this fight, I reached for the spirit behind me.

 _LANAYRU!_

The spring immediately lit with a fierce golden glow, and the spirit rose immediately with much displacement of water, screeching out a challenge as the orb within its mouth glowed white-hot in defiance.

Zant didn't even flinch.

A wave of power flared out from him, solid enough to knock me into the spring, and there was a rumbling crash overhead as Lanayru impacted the rocks of its cavern.

This close, the ripping, tearing sensation of the sudden smothering of light was agony. I clung to my human shape with everything in me, certain that my cat form would drown before I could recover my wits, and managed it, barely. But I hung in the water,breathing through my Zora mask, only barely able to see what took place overhead. I could sense Link, or rather his Triforce piece, and soon enough, through the blurry lens of water and pain—pain that was slow to recede this time—I saw Midna.

The world had temporarily been returned to Twilight, and Zant hung her over the pool, as if in threat. Judging by her struggles, his power—the power Ganondorf had granted him—eclipsed her own. She was helpless, we _all_ were helpless, and for the moment, all I could do was watch.

Watch as he stole the Fused Shadows from her. Wait as my body reasserted itself, drawing on the three spirits remaining to recover from the shock. I dared not move to her aid; in that moment, I was as helpless as she was, and selfish though it was, I had no desire to start a fight that I could not yet win.

I regret that choice now.

He yanked her back as my sight cleared, turning away from the pool. I heard her cry out, and allowed myself to float to the surface, moving with caution and care towards the lowered path that would let me climb out of the water with as minimal noise as possible.

"This power was granted to me by my _god_ ," Zant was saying as I moved slowly to the edge. "It is the magic of the King of the Twilight, and you _will_ respect it."

The power that built was nothing like the fusion of Sheikah shadow magic and Gerudo desert magic. It was a cold, angry power that promised nothing but pain and suffering, hatred and malice for all of eternity.

I reached the shore in time to see Link move in defense of Midna, take that spell straight to the face, and be flung back. I stopped caring about the noise, the pain, and pulled myself onto the path.

"Link!" Midna cried, her hand on his nose. "Link, answer me!"

The hero in wolf form was unconscious once more,however, and the curse—for that was what it was—sank into his skin before I could even start to reach for it. I saw Midna's head come up, she looked for me, saw me, but before she could reach out, Zant had her again, had pulled her back to him.

"My Midna," Zant hissed. "Did you forget? That beast is one of the light dwellers,who have oppressed our people. No matter how much you may desire otherwise, you will remain nothing more than a shadow in this world; their kind should not be _consorted_ with. But perhaps if we couldmake their world like ours... where light and shadow meet at last..."

"You'd kill the world," I interrupted flatly, sword in hand as I made it tot the top of the path. "There's no melding of worlds when it comes to your taint, puppet."

I startled him, and he stared; I could feel anger for interrupting his monologue, but also fear.

"This was _our_ world first," he hissed.

"Bullshit. Your ancestors forfeited their rights to this world when they tried to kill me, and take the Triforce," I said bluntly. "What you are now does not, _cannot_ ever be part of this world."

"Oh, there now, you see, Midna? The sorceress refuses our rights to this world... with your power and mine, we could remove her as a problem, and blot out this harsh light of hers."

Midna looked at me for a long minute; there was no way to take back the words I'd spoken in my anger,and I cursed my impulsiveness. I could only hope that she wouldn't agree to help him.

"This is not just for me," he said, his voice oily and persuasive. "This is for _all_ our people. Lend me your power..."

That seemed to be her breaking point. She yanked herself free of his hold and dropped to the ground, then ran to Link. I moved to stand between them, sword ready should he try anything.

"Can you help him?" she asked, her voice low.

"Link?"

"Yes."

"I think so."

"And then, I think you owe me a story."

I smiled a little, sharply.

"You owe me one as well."

Zant let out a sigh that was almost long-suffering, and I tensed, ready for a fight. Ready to kill him, if that was what it took to bring back Lanayru's light again.

"So be it then," he said in a tone of angry disappointment. "I will return you to this world of light you so covet."

She yelped as his magic grabbed her, yanked her back over the center of the lake. With a gesture, Lanayru's light was returned... and Midna was directly in the way. It felt as though my legs were made of lead, even as I lunged forward. Midna screamed as the light washed over her form, and I did the only thing I could think of.

" _Lanayru! TELEPORT!_ "

Zant started to turn, but my lead steps had carried my where I needed; the blade went through him, even as the light of Lanayru's power wrapped the three of us in protective bubbles and removed us from the spring.

Zant was not at the end of my blade when I dropped to hands and knees on the road above, but there was blood on it; I had struck true, and he would, if nothing else, be some time in recovering from the wound. It was the least I could do for the friend Midna had become.

Link came awake as the spirit lowered him and Midna slwoly, and whined a little in dismay to realize he was still in the form of a wolf. The whine grew as Midna's ragged breathing came clear. I looked up, and knew that I could do nothing. I did not have the knowledge that would allow me, mistress of Light, to heal the injured Twili princess.

But I knew who would.

"Link," I ground out, doing what I could to get off the ground. "Remember... what I said about Telma's.. bar?"

He whined, then nodded.

"Go there. The passage... is on the upper level. Use it. Get her to... Zelda. Go!"

He didn't wait for me to repeat myself; he was off like a shot across the plains. Overhead, the air rumbled. Lightning flashed, and then less than a minute later, water poured down from the sky.

Tired as I was, I had no desire to sit there and remain soaked as the world around reacted to the tragedy that had befallen Midna. It took me three tried to stagger to my feet... and I only made it with unexpected help. The golden wolf form of the Hero of Time came to my aid.

" _You look terrible_ ," he said frankly, one skeletal hand hooking under an arm that felt less like an arm and more like a limp noodle.

"I'm alive,"I retorted dryly.

" _You have more lives than a cat._ "

I couldn't exactly argue with that.

"What brought you here?"

" _The boy raced by, but you were not in sight, and no shadows cover the land. I thought you might be hurt. Are you?_ "

"I'm more exhausted than hurt," I said wearily, limping along with his aid. "Swimming around trying to be bait for a giant fish will do that to a body."

"... _I don't want to know_."

Worried as I was, it made me laugh. It was just so... _Link_ , that I couldn't help myself.

I managed to keep it from turning to tears, though it took a lot of control and discipline to avoid. Had he still been the Hero of Time...

But no. He was not, and I could glean no true comfort from the spirit that he was. His help though, his aid in reaching the stables outside of town, that I accepted without reservation. Once I was within sight of the stables, he went from stalfos to wolf, and hurried away into the rain. And I?

I continued to the stables, found a dry, empty stall, and settled in to wait. I confess, once I'd dried off and changed, I curled up in the straw and allowed myself to pass out for a few hours. As the rain tapered off, the thunder and lightning fading into the distance, I woke, ate, and took a look around; while the cart had not returned to the stable, I saw the horse Telma had borrowed, which told me that the woman was back in town, and gave me a rough estimate of how long we'd been busy. Much longer than I'd wanted to be.

Zora's and their temples, I swear.

The rains stopped around noon, though the sky retained its sullen gray state. I was tempted to head into town, but Zelda wouldn't be able to release Link's curse; wise she was, but magically powerful... well, no Zelda has been that for a good while. Not with the sort of magic it would take to get that curse off him. It was almost hoping too much that she might be able to save Midna... but the Triforce of Wisdom is a repository of knowledge, that crosses the borders of all worlds. Even if she personally did not know it, the knowledge she needed would come _to_ her.

A wolf in the city would force the guards to do something. And being over-reactionary, the thing they would attempt to do would not be at all helpful. So, despite knowing that Link could track me if I stepped into town, I waited in the stables.

Sure enough, as noon passed and the light that passed through the clouds began to shift in a noticeably downward arc, Link, a healed Midna astride his back, came trotting out, head low to the ground with fatigue. As they approached, a familiar tingle began, one that I had become much practiced at ignoring. This time,I did not, and reached out with my senses.

Midna carried the Triforce of Wisdom. But not just that. From the Twili, I felt Zelda's soul itself, aligned within.

As we met up, a cold, shivery feeling entered the air. Link's head came up, as did Midna's; as one, we three turned to face the castle, around which a barrier, golden as the twilight we had chased from the land, snapped into place. Link growled low in his throat, and Midna's expression was no friendlier.

"He could have done that at any time," I said quietly. "He's taunting us now."

The anger faded as Midna looked down at her hand. Then up at me.

"Zelda said that we needed to find the Master Sword to release Link from his curse, and that it was deep in a grove in Faron."

"Ah. Yes," I sighed a little. "That makes sense."

"She _also_ said that you know where the Mirror of Twilight is."

Midna's tone was just shy of accusatory, and I felt the bitter smile creep across my face. It was time to face that particular mistake then, was it? Of course it was.

"Yes. I know where to find both of these things." After a long moment, I sighed. "But first this wolf needs to rest. Link is dead on his feet, and while I may have napped, I'm not feeling my better. Let's warp to Faron Woods, find a place to rest, and then you can ask me all the questions you'd like."

I admit, I could have gotten us there faster. There is one place left in this land where the teleportation songs will work, and that is the Temple of Time. All spells and trials laid on those grounds, save the actual Temple of Time itself, are things I had a hand in.

But I was still, quite genuinely, exhausted. I did not have it in me to extend the offer to make this jump an easier one than necessary. In truth, Link has always had to prove himself worthy of the sword; by unlocking the door to it, by finding it among the mists of the Lost Woods, by breaking the spells on the Temple itself. It is one of those things that simply _is_.

We landed in the clearing just shy of the Old One, and I set up camp there as afternoon turned to evening. Link barely had the energy for the food I gave him, but he tried, and curled up where he laid, dead to the world moments after finishing.

Midna stared at me across the fire, and I could see the questions in her eye. She was, at least, polite enough to let me eat before she started in on them.

"How do you know these things?" she demanded. " _Why_ do you know these things? Who are you, really?"

I smiled tiredly.

"How old do I look?" I asked, my voice quiet, genial.

"Oh please," she scoffed a little. "You can't be much older than P... Princess Zelda was. Maybe a couple of years older, if that."

"Ah, if only..." I sighed, and shook my head. "I hesitate to put an actual number to my age... mostly because I've lived long enough that I genuinely don't remember."

Midna's eye narrowed, as if she wasn't sure if I was being sincere or not. I half-shrugged, and pointed to her left hand.

"Ask it."

"What...?"

"Currently, you possess the Triforce of Wisdom. Ask it."

For every person who uses the Triforce of Wisdom, the answers come in different ways. For me,it's always been images, memories from the context of other people. Zelda, with her skill at maintaining impartiality, would see it from a different view, and could often get more facts about a thing than I could. What Midna saw, or heard,she never shared, but her eye grew wide, and she stared at me in something akin to awe.

I grimaced a little.

"Don't look so stunned," I sighed. "Living this long is not a gift. At this point, it's a curse, and I'd gladly give it all up for a normal life, where I wasn't plagued by what I have thus far failed to do."

"But... but you..."

"Yes, I made the Mirror of Twilight, and for all intents and purposes, could be considered the creator of your race. This doesn't make me a goddess," I shook my head and scowled slightly at the fire. "It makes me a damned fool."

"Why?"

"Because if I had never made it, Ganondorf would never had been able to get this far," I shook my head slightly. "But speculation is pointless. It does exist, your people exist, and so does the damage I've done. As we are now, I can't even fix it."

"How _would_ you fix it?"

I sighed again.

"One day, I thought I'd be able to build a bridge. To let the people I'd trapped there out, to bring them back to the world that was their home. But your people are not the ones I sent into the Mirror, and this realm of light would kill them, just as surely as Lanayru's almost killed you. At this point, the only way to avoid making things worse would be the break it. Undo all the enchantments, and shatter it back down to its base components."

"...will you?"

I stared at the fire for a long minute. It was a fair question, after all.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Right now, I can't. You're still here, and there's still trouble to deal with. Zant. Ganondorf. We'll need that passage open for a time yet. After... After I'll try. But you know..." I hesitated. Studied her. "You could do it too, if it became necessary. It shouldn't. But if it does, if, for whatever reason I'm incapacitated and can't do it, you could."

"As I am now?"Midna's expression was skeptical.

"Yes."

"In _this_ shape?"

"Midna, the form your curse takes didn't take away your skill. It may have limited your power, but it didn't remove your knowledge, or your abilities," I said tartly.

"H...how did you...?"

"I know the feel of Ganondorf's power," I grimaced a little. "I've had it placed on me before, and it's a sensation that's hard to forget, no matter how many centuries pass. It's not quite the same as what's on Link; the Master Sword won't help you any. The only thing that will, is taking out the source of the curse."

"So I kill Zant," Midna said, a vicious light filling her face.

"Ah... no."

"But you just said-"

"I said you have to take out the _source_ of the curse," I interrupted. "Not the caster. The caster is Zant, I take it. But the source is Ganondorf's _power_. Since he's locked himself away in Hyrule Castle, it's to there we'll have to go to free you back to whatever your original form is."

Her face fell, and I nodded a little in sympathy.

"I know. It sucks, and it's one hell of a technicality. But. It can be done. Once Link has the Master Sword, that's when the work really begins."

"So... after we get the sword, where do we go?"

"The desert," I sighed tiredly. "We go to the desert."

Silence descended for several minutes, and then I yawned.

"For now, however, we go to sleep. The Lost Woods are difficult to reach, and dangerous to cross. And I will be leaving you at the entrance."

"What?! But why?!"

"Because," and I nodded lightly towards the sleeping wolf, "Link must prove himself worthy of the sword. I cannot help. At best, I can open the way for you, but you, and he, must make it there on your own."

"So you're abandoning us," she said bitterly.

"Don't put words in my mouth, little princess," I said sharply.

"Well, what would _you_ call it, then?"

"Pragmatism."

She blinked.

"If I'm with you, that which guards the forest will make the trials relentless and terrible, basically scaling them up to my skill, and not to Link's. This is likely to not just injure you both, but outright kill you, regardless of whose soul now sustains you," I said bluntly. "Therefore, by jumping ahead, Link gets a fair test, and you both stand a good chance of making it to the Temple of Time."

"...oh..."

I huffed a little, amused and irritated all at once.

"Yeah, oh. I'm going to sleep now, Midna. G'night."

"...good night..."

Morning came, and went; I admit, both Link and I slept right through it. In all fairness, laboring under a curse after spending several _days_ swimming through a temple is exhausting. To her credit, Midna let us sleep until we woke up on our own, and didn't badger us to move before we were ready to move.

Sore and still worn out or not, when Link got to his feet and huffed out a firm sound, I nodded and got up as well.

"It's not easy to get to the Lost Woods," I said as we headed into the Old One's clearing. "I made it that way deliberately, to keep people from going where they don't need to. I'll take you to the entrance, but you're on your own from there."

Link whined a little, but Midna just frowned, before nodding in grumpy resignation.

The going was actually more difficult than I remembered. The cliff had worn away to where the once 'nearly invisible' path was actually almost entirely gone. While I edged along it, face to the wall, Link and Midna found another way around. The two wind bridges, at least, were still in place and functioning, though judging from the way they creaked, that wouldn't last much longer. And indeed, as we stepped from the first to the second, a low, groaning snap, followed by a cracking crunch heralded the bridge's demise.

I sighed a little and muttered a few vague curses under my breath. Midna giggled a bit.

The single rope across the gorge was less than pleasing for me; all that was left of a once sturdy bridge was not going to hold up much longer either. On the bright side, those waited to snap until well _after_ we'd left.

The singing Sheikah stone greeted Link, and he sat down to howl along with it. I continued ahead to make sure there were no surprises; fortunately, there were none, and Link caught up swiftly enough.

We stepped out from the stone tunnel into the dim green light of the forest, the last of the Lost Woods. Midna stared around her in awe as Link's steps slowed from reverence, or memory, I'm not sure which. I could hardly blame them; the Lost Woods were a close forest, much different from the wide open trees and large clearings of Faron Wood. There has always been a palpable weight of age, and a faint undercurrent of threat to those who enter, even me.

Even so, it is a beautiful place. Great trees tower over all, and the air remains cool and soft; the ground is a patchwork of old leaves, with only some scant grasses and moss, but still it is soft, and there is a profound silence at first... but if you listen closely, you can hear the ancient song of the forest. Saria's Song still echoes among the trees, and it will forever, until the last guarding of the forest cries for release.

I am grateful yet that he does not.

"It is here that I must leave you," I said with a faint smile. "The forest will open to you, if you can but follow the song. I offer this warning; harm no trees in your passing, and the trees will not harm you."

"Follow the song?"

I smiled a little wider, and wryly.

"Just listen," I said firmly. "You'll know the song when you hear it."

From a pouch I drew the Ocarina of Time, and with the notes of the Prelude of Light, the magic swept me away, depositing me in the warm, sunshine filled glade that was one the Temple of Time.

Was it unkind of me to leave them so abruptly? Oh, probably. But my words to Midna had been true; the skull child's standing orders are to test _everyone_ who enters the forest. And I am included in that everyone, unless I take the short path.

I called to the Skull Kid with Saria's Song, and was answered rapidly, in a whirlwind of autumn leaves and clattering delight.

"Test them, my friend, and open only the lower door if they pass," I said.

"I will, I will!" he said eagerly. "Are they mine to keep if they fail?"

"I'm afraid not, little one," I said wryly. "If they fail, only lead them out. Old friends need a second chance, after all."

"Old friends!" The Skull Child became so immediately excited that his hat stood on end, and danced in place. "Old friends are the best kind!"

I had to laugh in agreement, and off he went to lead them around.

Since I had time to kill, I picked the sunniest spot, and set about 'freshening up' as Telma would have put it. Though to be fair, most of it was just caring for my hair; adventuring is often rather hard on it, even braided and pinned up. And tough I know I ought to keep it short, I go through bouts where I let my hair grow long and free...

Or at least, as free as a braid can get.

It took them the better part of two hours to get through the maze of the forest and make it to the lower entrance to the Temple of Time. The minute they were in, Midna gave me a look just shy of hostile, even as Link visibly perked up.

"That wasn't _nice_ ," she said severely.

I grinned. Couldn't help it.

"If you expect nice from me, you're looking at the wrong person," I informed her. "I don't do nice."

Link whined a little, and butted his head against my knees. Midna made an annoyed sound then looked around.

"I don't," she said slowly, "see any sword."

"Of course not. This is the main entrance to the Temple of Time."

She gave me a narrow-eyed stare.

"Where's the sword?"

I pointed.

"Through that door."

"That door is closed."

"Yup."

Link made a sound that I was willing to swear was a laugh, and after a moment, I relented.

"Oh do stop glaring, Midna. It's not often I bring people here, and even less often that I get to feel safe about it. Give me a moment, and I'll open the door for you."

There was, of course, a test there, but while I had made the test, I had also made the test _override_. I held the Ocarina in my hands, and played the Song of Time, a song that was now so ancient that no one remembered its crafting.

The notes that wound their way into the air shattered my spells, and the door slid upwards with the faint grating of stone against stone. Link wasted no time in rushing up the stairs into the clearing that held the Master Sword.

If ever there was a single spot that radiated peace, it was this one; a soft fog covered the ground,and sunlight pierced the canopy of trees, casting very prominent light onto the sword at the far end. The sword itself, implanted in the Pedestal of Time, glowed of its own accord, showing not a speck of rust on the ancient blade.

As Link approached, the glow grew noticeably; the blade held a consciousness all its own, and could detect its master, as well as the evil that shrouded him. The purity and force of the power sent Midna flying with a yelp of surprise. Fortunately for her, I had been expecting it, and kept her from tumbling too far.

Link fought against the force pushing him away from the blade, then snarled a challenge that echoed throughout the clearing.

Whatever it was, the blade answered, and the light grew briefly to blinding as it cleaved through the curse that had been placed upon him.

It might have cast the spell away entirely, if not for Midna's presence; while she was not evil, she held the shadow magic of the Twili people within, and this brought the spell cohesively to rest before her. She stared for a moment, then leaned in carefully to study it as it hovered there, harmless until it needed to be put into action once more.

As we watched, Link put a hand on the hilt of the Master Sword, and pulled; it glowed softly, and as he lifted it, the power within the blade became a soft wind that rushed outwards, clearing the fog in all directions. The sunlight became much more prominent, even if only for a brief moment.

It was, in truth, a very heroic image. Nothing like when the Hero of Time had first drawn the sword...but then, every Hero who claims the sword for as long as is necessary, comes to it differently.

"The sword..." Midna breathed, awed despite herself.

"Mmhm. It knows its master," I said, feeling a soft pride that wound its way through me. It had been a very long time since I'd seen hero and blade together.

Link turned to us, determination in his eyes as he swung the sword a few times to get used to the weight and balance. It was longer than the Ordonian blade, and noticeably heavier... but he adjusted to it quickly,and after a moment, sheathed it.

Midna lifted a hand, showing him the physical form of the spell.

"This is what the curse was," she said. "The structure is different from the shadow magic of our tribe... And if you touch it,it'll turn you back into a beast. It's much too dangerous, so we should probably leave it here... right?"

I snorted a little at the expression on her face.

"Would it be safe here?" Link asked.

"Oh, certainly. But it's a useful bit of magic," I pointed out. "You can't warp without Midna, and Midna can't warp while she's a shadow. But if you're a wolf, and she's fully actualized here in our world, we can use the portals as we please."

"So you agree that we should keep it then?" Midna said with a grin.

"He gave it to us,I think we should use it as we please,"I said with a sharp smile of my own. "Link?"

"...it is... useful. Being a wolf. Sometimes," he admitted. "Yeah. Let's keep it."

"Good, then we're agreed," Midna said, and dismissed the spell until it was needed again. "And.. um.. hey. I need a favor. Would... are you willing to keep traveling with us. Link?"

"Huh?"

"The next leg of our journey is getting to the Mirror of Twilight," I replied. "No doubt after being stabbed, Zant went through it so that he could recover in his own realm."

"Wait, you _stabbed_ him?" she exclaimed.

I nodded, smirking a little.

"In the back and through, just before Lanayru got us all out of there. So he's bound to have gone back to the 'safety' of his own realm. The Mirror of Twilight is our way in to that realm."

"I'm in," Link said firmly, without any sign of hesitation.

"Good. Then let's get out of here, and see about finding a path into the desert."


	14. Thirteen

Thirteen

The problem with trying to reach the desert is that I hadn't sought it for years. All the paths, narrow and wide, were collapsed. The cliffs were not _sheer_ and with enough time and effort, a path could have been carved, but we didn't have the months and months such work would take. In fact, if old Auru hadn't seen me stomping in circles, we would have been stuck there for a lot longer.

The low call of a loon caught my attention, mostly because there were no loons on the lake. Even as I turned,Link's head came up too, and we looked around before my gaze went up to the tall watchtower perched at the highest point of land on the lake.

I could _just_ make out the lifted hand.

"Who's that?" Link asked.

"I'm not... sure. Let's go find out."

"Could it be a trap?" Midna asked.

"Would a trap have gone out of their way to get our attention?" I asked dryly.

There was a pensive silence for a moment.

"Someone who was convinced they were really good might," she finally said.

"True," I conceded with a nod. "But even from down here, I can see that this person is very tall, and there are only a few people who are taller than I am. So I'm pretty sure that's a friend. Not positive, but pretty sure."

That seemed to satisfy her enough that she nodded, then vanished as we headed up the path to see who it was. Of course, Auru couldn't be considerate enough to climb _down_ , no... but then, it was plain from the spyglass that he was keeping an eye on the desert, and seeing well beyond what I could.

"Old man, don't you have _better_ ways to waste your time?" I chided dryly.

"Funny, considering the person asking the question," he replied, just as dryly.

I smirked; of all of them, Auru was the one who'd been part of the group the longest, and therefore knew a hint more than the rest. If nothing else, he'd born witness to the fact that I don't age, as he'd been about twenty when he joined, and was now well into his sixties.

"And this is Master Link, yes?"

I nodded, and moved aside a bit more so that Link could properly look up at the old man; Auru was _much_ taller than the Hero could ever hope to be, but for all his apparent size and strength, he was really quite gentle. When not going out to help other villages against bulbins and the like, he made wooden toys for the poor children in the city.

"I am Auru," he said, bowing slightly. "I am one of the group who regularly meets at Telma's; she has told us all about your deeds. Seeing as the two of you are here at the edge of the desert, no doubt you have heard of the strange events and come to investigate. Yes?"

Link blinked, then glanced at me. I blinked as well, and cocked my head slightly.

"What's going on in the desert?" I asked.

"I am none too sure, but my bones tell me that the recently plague of problems must come from the old prison. Surely you feel it too, Lady Raiha?"

"Something like that,"I sighed a little. "But we can't get out there; the paths are all shot."

"You're trying to get out there?" he asked, surprised. "Well, I can at least help with that. Fyer, the old man who runs the cannon, owes me a favor for saving his life. Give me but a moment, and I shall be able to smooth your way."

He pulled out apiece of paper, and scribbled down a note, then folded it up, and handed it to Link.

"This should allow you entrance to the desert, then. Be careful..."

"Believe me, Auru, I know that better than anyone you'll ever meet. C'mon Link."

I admit, I was not necessarily pleased that the cannon was our only way in. It's not easy to control cannon flight, and we would be making a rough landing in sand to boot.

"Is the desert... dangerous?" Link asked hesitantly as we headed down the path.

"Everything is dangerous," I pointed out, "but yes, the desert is a particularly unhappy place; it's long been the home of restless spirits, and it's where most bulbin and the battle boars come from."

"But it's where we'll find the mirror?"

"Mmm. We'll be going straight for the heart of trouble, you'd best believe it. But first, we're going to stock up; the Gerudo Desert is no place to make mistakes, and one of the biggest is not having enough water."

"But... there's water all around us," he said after a minute, confused.

"Yes. But there's more to this than just water," I said after a minute, taking the turn upwards on the narrow path that would lead to the plains. "The desert is merciless in daytime, and pitiless at night. We are nowhere near ready to make the journey to Arbiter's Grounds as we are."

"Aren't you being a bit pessimistic?" Midna asked.

"I'm being pragmatic," I retorted. "I, if need be, can cross the desert in a day. That's twelve hours of walking over blazing hot sands, under a sky that is never cloudy unless a sandstorm arises, or it's the monsoon season. And that's assuming we get there in early morning, and not the middle of the day, or at night. It's _cold_ in the desert at night, and not much safer than by day."

"Oh..."

"So, we'll go back to town, pick up some better garments, more supplies, and see if the rest of Telma's group is in residence. It can't hurt to introduce you to them, Link."

He nodded in understanding, and even a bit of pleasure; Link is far more outgoing than I am, and he certainly seemed to enjoy meeting all the different people he had while on this adventure. I knew that even after it was all done, he was likely to continue to travel. His world was still expanding, and there was so much to see, after all.

There was no point in admitting that I could make the twelve hour walk assisted by the magic, the points still remained the same; Hylians always suffer in the desert. Their pale skin goes red, and heatstroke hits them harder. Given that we were both going to be wearing armor as well, and that wasn't safe to remove, I wanted to give us the best chance we had to reach Arbiter's Grounds that _wouldn't_ have us taking more than said day.

The prison was going to be rough enough without lingering in a desert that wanted pretty much every human dead.

"You _do_ remember that I can pretty much teleport us anywhere there's a portal now, right?" Midna asked as we reached the plains.

I stopped. Blinked.

"...uh, whoops."

She laughed at me; I had indeed forgotten already. In my defense, I was used to walking everywhere, or riding a horse. It was going to take me quite a bit of time before I was used to the idea of portaling everywhere again.

Thanks to that, however, we were quickly deposited at the entrance to Castletown. After Link changed back, we did some brisk bargaining work to get us what we needed for our desert trip. Long robes that were loose to help what little airflow we could get to keep us cool under the sun, with hoods to shade the face; more waterskins that we could fill in the lake before we hopped into the cannon; dried foods that wouldn't spoil in the heat, and eye coverings, just in case a sandstorm blew up unexepctedly.

Then, we dropped by the bar.

"Well, hello there!" Telma said in delight. "It's been a bit, how have you two been?"

"Busy," I replied after a moment; Link got somewhat tongue-tied in Telma's presence, which I admit, was amusing. "Who's here?"

"Oh, everyone but old Auru," she said with a sigh. Then she brightened. "But this is perfect timing, since I was just talking about you and your protege~"

"Oh boy," I muttered.

"Hey, everyone! You should introduce yourselves! This is the infamous Link~" she called, leaning over the bar. Then she smiled winsomely at Link. "That's them back there, go on, none of them bite."

Link hesitated, but when I nodded, he went over to introduce himself. I leaned against the bar with a tired sigh, and Telma obligingly poured me a mug of cider.

"Long day?" she asked with wry amusement.

"And only going to get longer. But we'll be all right."

"That young man... you don't _fancy_ him, do you?"

Were I younger, the question would have had me choking on my drink. Instead, I gave Telma a wry look over the lip of the mug, and set it down lightly on the bar.

"Right now, I'm a bit too busy to think about that sort of thing," I pointed out dryly. "Besides, I saw the way he looked at Ilia. If they're not a couple, or close to it, I'll eat my gloves. Have you or them heard anything else disturbing lately?"

"Strange things seem to be happening all over," Telma said with a sigh. "The desert, Ashei says something odd is happening on the mountain to the north..."

I made a face. Snowpeak was _definitely_ not on my list of places to visit. If anything, it was on the list of places to avoid. Ice and snow were the farthest thing from pleasant to me, no matter what form I wore.

"But that does seem to be the worst of it," she said thoughtfully. "And Ashei said she'd investigate Snowpeak herself in a few days, so you should go over and be moderately social yourself."

I liked Telma's group, most of the time. Lord Shad Sorall and I often disagreed on things, but for a noble who had attended only the 'best' schools in Hyrule, he wasn't a bad sort. He was even open-minded enough to admit when he had misinterpreted a fact, and could take most legends as their own sort of continuity instead of making them all fit to the same mold. While he was still occasionally an arrogant young man, he was also patently informal among friends, and he tried very hard.

In truth, while not as extensive as the Royal Library, the Sorall household has one that is a close second, and often housed multiple scholars whose only jobs were to reproduce the books that were falling apart with old age.

Ashei and I were about as close as two solitary folk could be. Most often we didn't actually _need_ to speak to one another, when a point or a gesture could convey enough information. For her age, she was wise, and her father had been a skilled knight under my employ. I hadn't met her until _after_ his death, when she had come down out of the mountains to lay claim to the small holding that was technically his, but her father had been just as much of a loner. We get along very well.

There was a newcomer at the table I didn't recognize. And indeed, didn't even _know_ until he pulled off his helmet and Link squawked out, " _Rusl?!_ " in surprise. Link's old teacher grinned a little, plainly pleased by the reaction to his revelation.

"Uli wrote to me, and I have seen the children safe in Kakariko," he said with a nod. "And naturally, I have heard much about your adventures from them, and also from Telma. Your help with Colin was invaluable... I almost didn't recognize my own son when I saw him. That new light in his eyes..."

He smiled broadly.

"I am pleased to see it. His show of bravery pointed out to me that I have not been active in helping these friends of mine. For now, I am gathering information, but when I have something, I will be happy to pass it along."

Link beamed.

"And this lady is now your teacher?" he asked, looking from Link to myself.

"Yes," Link nodded quickly. "You should _see_ her Rusl, she's fast. So fast! I have more bruises after a practice session with her than even when we get caught fighting bulbin or bokoblin!"

"He's getting faster," I said dryly. "And also exaggerating. I don't hit that hard."

"I'm glad he has someone to teach him further," Rusl said with a faint nod. "I am good, but I am not a master, and Link has the ability to be one, with the right training. And thank you as well, for the aid you gave to my son."

Embarrassed, I waved a hand lightly, and decided that taking a sip of my drink was a good way to avoid saying anything. Link just beamed.

We stayed for an hour, just casually trading information. Link did most of the talking, expanding to Rusl, mostly, about everything he'd been doing. Ashei and Shad both listened with interest, and I admit, it was amusing to watch Shad take notes. Link carefully avoided mentioning the twilight, and what had happened within it... or at least he did after I kicked his ankle to remind him that they wouldn't have been able to understand what had happened. Of all of them, Shad was the only possibility, and even he tended to scoff at the idea that magic could do much of anything.

Not that I could blame anyone for not really believing much in magic. Barrier around the castle notwithstanding, there are only a few people left who use it, and even then, it dwindles more and more, no matter what I try to do.

Someday...

Tch. I digress.

The courtyard outside Telma's bar was not routinely filled with people; it was, in fact, something of a blind spot, this comforting hole in the wall that few people actually took note of. How she makes rent every month, I'm still not quite sure... But in any case, it provided a safe spot for us to teleport from, back to the lake with all our newly acquired gear.

"Are we going tonight?" Link asked, perhaps a little eagerly. "We have everything we need, don't we?"

"Ye-es... but would you rather sleep here on the grass, or sleep on the sand?"

He blinked, and thought for a moment; I had no particular objection to either,though it had been a long time since I'd slept on the sands. In truth, as wary as I was, I was also looking forward to seeing the desert again. Eager in my own way, but still tempered by a heavy dose of caution.

"Will it be _very_ cold?" he finally asked.

"Not as cold as Zora's Domain was, but about there," I replied. "You could always take wolf form if you wanted, to protect yourself from the chill."

"But then I can't talk to you."

I gave him a dry look.

"It won't be cold during the day, and if it's to rest, I don't see why speaking should be important."

It came out just a bit sharper than I'd meant, but he took the rebuke in stride. Link Midna, Link was growing into himself, and growing into the strength of his Triforce piece. I have never been entirely sure if he'd grown used to me leading him around, and saw no reason to change it, or if he just wanted me to stay, so he let me remain in charge.

Not that he could have shaken me, but if he had indicated he no longer wanted or needed my help, I would have moved to a watcher's position instead.

In any case, after another few moments, he headed purposefully for the cannoneer's place in the middle of the lake.

"Oh ho," the old man greeted us with a wave. "Tired of walking, huh? Got a great ride for just ten rupees if you want it!"

"Actually, we want something a little bit different this time," I said.

"Eeeh?"

Link pulled out the note Auru had written and handed it over. After a minute, Fyer sighed.

"Well, suppose I'd better do as the old coot says. One oasis flight, on the house; a thing regular customers don't normally get," he said with a grin. "You goin?"

"We're going."

He moved aside, towards the mechanics that would rotate and fire the cannon as Link and I climbed in.

"Just remember," he said as the back swung down, "next time ya gotta pay!"

Of all the methods of transportation I have come across, 'cannon flight' is decidedly my least favorite. First being jerked about as the platform jerks, then spun like a top, and finally fired from the cannon so dizzy that it's difficult to get ones bearings. And then of course, the _landing._

Let's not even get into that...

The desert at night was a cold and quiet silver-blue under the moon. The stars blazed down, tiny pinpricks of light in the dark velvet-blue sky overhead. Arid and dry... and I didn't realize just how much I'd missed it until I stood on the sands once more.

I took in a long, slow breath, and tasted the wind; the flavor of sullen anger, of long-hidden malice still sang true, but underneath I could still feel the memory of the hard desert rains, and the echo of the Gerudo dances for the joy that those rains brought.

Home.

"So, um..."

Midna's voice broke my bubble of memory, and I turned in surprise. She hung there, about shoulder high, and looked decidedly uncomfortable.

"You know... the Fused Shadows," she said hesitantly. "And... the tribe that tried to rule the scared realm. You know better than anyone what happened to them, don't you?"

"From...my perspective, yes. But tell me what your people know," I said after a moment.

"The tribe... they were banished. The goddesses of Hyrule chased them across the sacred land, and sealed them away in another realm." She wouldn't look at me, and Link glanced between us anxiously. "This realm was the antithesis to Hyrule, where only a dim light shone. It's denizens became as shadows, and they couldn't mingle with the light. Eventually, it came to be known as the Twilight Realm, and from it, no one could return to the world of light. They were forever doomed to live in a world of half-light, flitting in the shadows of Hyrule."

I grimaced a little, and rubbed the tip of my nose, feeling ages-old guilt that whomped abruptly across my shoulders. It had been a weight I had managed to successfully shuck for a time, telling myself that they were their own people, and nothing I did would be beneficial any longer. While _true_ , it did not absolve me of the guilt of their creation. Nor the fact that I allowed the kings and queens of Hyrule to continue sending the worst criminals through the mirror to that realm, until the desert roads became impassable.

"At least, that is the history that has been passed down by the Twili ancestors," she said quietly. "And you've known that the whole time, haven't you? What I am, what I'm descended from?"

"Yes."

Link made a faintly shocked sound, but I held up a hand lightly.

"Thing is, over time, your people have changed, Midna," I said, keeping my tone gentle. "And really, how your people came to be... it's a lot more complicated than that. Just because that's how it _was_ doesn't mean that's how it always will _be_. If nothing else, I suspect Zant is a throwback to... well, something a bit different."

"Zant..." Midna's eye narrowed. "Our realm was peaceful, until he came along and changed everything, transforming all the people into shadow beasts... You said he got this power from someone named... Ganondorf. Are you still so certain?"

"I know the feel of the Triforce of Power," I replied, with a firm nod. "What cursed Link, what you labor under, that is not fusion of shadow and desert magic. That is Power, used to wicked ends."

"I was sent away from our realm... barred from entry without his help. But I remembered other stories told by my people. That, how even though we were forbidden from actually returning to Hyrule, there was still the one link left that could allow passage, no matter what."

She was looking pointedly at me now. I sighed.

"I suppose it's my turn to tell a story, then," I said. "Link, how tired are you?"

"I can keep going," he said immediately, eyes wide. "What's going on?"

"It's a long story, that isn't particularly happy. Let's at least cut down on some of the distance, if I have to tell it."

We started walking, Midna floating alongside as I collected my thoughts, and searched ancient memories for the main points of what I'd need to say.

"I could start with excuses," I finally said. "Claim I had no idea what I was doing. They certainly wouldn't be lies. But ignorance doesn't excuse what happened later, or change the fact that I didn't do what I should have. Yes, a handful of people from beyond the desert were sent through the mirror to the Twilight Realm. And yes, I was the one who broke up the Fused Shadows, and had the Light Spirits help me seal them away."

I kept to the main points of the story; what the Mirror had been meant for. How it was stolen. How it was corrupted. How, in my hope, I had not shattered it. Link and Midna both listened with rapt attention as the story covered a quarter of the desert walk, and only cut off because the shadow beasts jumped down from the skies above.

Midna yelped and ducked back into Link's shadow as he and I drew our blades; there were only three of the beasts, and they were finished in short enough order, leaving me looking up with a faint frown.

"Hey," Link said after a minute, also squinting up in the moonlight. "Isn't that...?"

"I do believe it's the missing piece of my bridge," I said a bit tartly. "At least it _is_ in one piece."

Without prompting, Midna popped up and gave it a thoughtful look.

"I can probably put this back. Fuse it in place and everything. Eldin bridge, right?"

"Mmhm. You sure you can, though? I mean,it's quite a bit bigger and heavier than the bridge for the gorge was."

She grinned slyly at me, which was admittedly something of a relief. I admit, at that point I was coming to value her friendship, and telling the full story of the Mirror, and Ganondorf, and all that... well, I had worried that she would resent me.

"Like you said, my form doesn't negate my skill! Back in a wink~"

As we watched, she lifted the giant stone monolith and sent it through the portal, revealing a cavern that had been previously blocked, and an uprush of cool air that suggested an underground spring. As promised, she was back before we really had time to blink, looking very smug.

"Tucked right into place, and fused it back together. It's not going anywhere~"

"Heh. Thanks. This cavern should be a good place to rest for now, and we'll move again in a few hours."

Link looked pleased by this; he had been stifling yawns for the past half an hour at the least, fascinated by the story or not. He had barely wrapped himself up in his bedroll inside the cavern before he was asleep.

I sat at the entrance, keeping watch; I was not so tired that I needed to sleep, and when the hottest hours of the day hit was when I would sleep best, really.

"I'm not mad at you, you know," Midna said, popping up once more to sit cross-legged in midair. "Really, I'm not. I mean, yeah, you were an idiot, but you didn't know what else to do..."

"I should have broken it," I said wearily. "I should never have allowed myself to leave it here, hope or not."

"But without it-"

"Without it, none of this would be happening," I interrupted. "Don't get me wrong, Midna. I am _thrilled_ that your people survived and evolved to be what they are now, even with a moron like Zant trying to take over. But if I had broken the mirror back when everything had happened instead of trying to _fix_ things, Ganondorf would never have been sent through, and none of this would be happening."

She hesitated, then laid a tiny hand on my shoulder. I gave her a half-smile, touched by the show of concern. Then I sighed, and looked out at the silver-colored desert, seeing fires from bulbin encampments, and knowing this was only the start of our troubles.

"It is, in the end, my fault. You and yours, and this world too, are all suffering because I failed to think ahead. Because I could not _do_ what I should have."

Midna was quiet for several minutes.

"Well, I'm glad."

I blinked, and stared at her in surprise.

"I mean, I don't like all the bad and cruel things that have happened, but... but I am glad I got to meet you. And Zelda. And Link," she rushed on, clearly embarrassed. Then she fixed me with a look that was just shy of fierce. "So stop feeling sorry for yourself!"

I blinked again, then had to chuckle.

"As you say, little princess."

"And get some sleep! You said you wanted to be out early, which means you should rest," she said firmly. "I can keep an eye out for anything that might cause us problems."

"All right, all right," and I couldn't help but grin, holding my hands up defensively. "I'm going!"

"Good!"


	15. Fourteen

Fourteen

There is something mystical about dawn in the desert. Not to say that dawn in other areas isn't just as glorious, but in the desert, lacking mountains in the east, the sunlight pours golden and orange across the sands, spilling both color and a semblance of life back into the world.

Unfortunately, with the advent of dawn, the temperature also immediately begins to rise.

I had managed a couple hours worth of sleep, waking Link at the false dawn to ensure that we _could_ get somewhere before the harsh sunlight would sap energy and will from him. I was hoping that we could at least bridge the crevasse that separated the part of the desert we landed in from the part where the prison lay.

Link was unusually laconic, but since I was in no mood to really speak myself, I didn't ask if something was bothering him. It wasn't until we reached the canyon, just shy of noon, that he finally spoke.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing upwards.

I glanced up then nodded a little. In lieu of a bridge—and really, who _would_ repair a bridge out here—the strange plant would do.

"I've always called it a whirler," I replied. "I'm not entirely sure what it does, or where it's from, but it ought to get us across."

"How?"

"Clawshot and piggy back."

He was already flushed from the heat, so it wasn't easy to see if the idea was making him turn more red.

"Though from the looks of you, a rest might be in order first," I said, giving him a critical once over. "Puppy, you need to speak up if I'm going too fast in this sort of heat. It doesn't bother me as much..."

He smiled a bit sheepishly, then shook his head a bit.

"I can make it! If we get over that's... halfway, right?"

"Thereabouts."

We could make out the prison in the distance, but more important was the bulbin outpost just before it. Only a small handful of the creatures, and two boars, but there was no point in taking more risks than we had to.

"Well, if you're sure you can make it, let's cross now, and then we'll set up camp on the other side. About there, I think."

There was a rock face not too far from the edge that looked like it'd give a decent amount of shade before too much longer, which would make it a perfect place for a nap. Link nodded, hesitated, then offered me the clawshot.

"Not so sure of your own strength at the moment?" I asked, more curious and concerned than anything else.

Link shook his head, and wiped his face with a grimace.

"All right. C'mere, and hang on."

In truth, I was glad he'd given the clawshot to me. I would have taken it in hand without prompting otherwise. And while having a heavy, overheated weight on my back did _me_ no favors, we at least made it to the other side. Setting up the canvas I'd acquired as an airy tent, I helped Link in, and even managed to get him to divest of most of his clothing to help him cool down.

"It's _hot_ ," he said once he'd drained almost half a skin of water.

"It's the desert," I said with a shrug and a wry smile. "Don't worry, we shouldn't need to be here that long. Rest for now. We'll move on when the day has faded some."

In truth, I should have made us travel all night, instead of breaking it up; the cold was pitiless, but when it came down to it, we could both change into a form that had fur. Mine was even acclimatized to just this sort of terrain, and his could cover the ground swiftly enough at night.

I admit, the thought didn't occur to me until after we'd made it through to the prison. Proof that when I focus on a goal, sometimes even my plans within plans forget useful, key elements.

Link flopped onto his bedroll and closed his eyes, turning away as I stripped out of my own clothing. The heat bothered me less, I admit. I had _missed_ it. Hyrule is a nice place, but it is damp, and damp cold is _abysmal._ It never gets as hot in Hyrule as it does in the Gerudo Desert either...

I slept deeply, but nightmares plagued my dreams, sharp memories of past failures taking on new twists that woke me abruptly with a racing heart, and panting for breath as though I had been running for days.

The sun was halfway down in the sky, throwing our shelter into shade, and though I did not exactly feel _rested_ , I got up anyways, put my desertwear on, and went out to scout. Link was awake when I returned, also dressed, and the stubborn light was back in his eye. I nodded a little to see it, and we ate, drank, tended necessities, and then packed up in a comfortable sort of silence.

"There were four bulbin out there, along with the two boars," I said as we started walking.

"Were?"

"Were," I smiled thinly. "I shot them. They were in the way. Now, theoretically, it should be a straight shot from here to the prison, but the cliff face is in the way. And if there were four scouts, that means there should be an encampment nearby."

"A prison... wouldn't it have... guards?" Link asked hesitantly.

"Hm?"

"I mean... I know it's not in use any more, but wouldn't it have had guards, or something before, when it _was_ in use?"

I blinked, then nodded slowly.

"And bulbin are not _completely_ stupid... so if they set up anywhere, they would have set up in what was left of the guard station that was here," I grimaced a little. "Which is probably between us and the prison, and made of the same desert stone. Well. This should be fun."

"Um... there's also..."

I jumped down to the sands below, then raised an eyebrow as Link did the same.

"Also what?"

"The...the golden wolf. He should be around here somewhere too."

"Ah, time for another skill then," I nodded slightly. "All right. We'll keep an eye out for him too, then."

Now, of all the skills I have learned in my time as a Gerudo, the one that was never really _taught_ was how to ride a battle boar. Gerudo women were _horsewomen_. Battle boars were for the unintelligent bulbin. So riding a battle boar was... well, a quite literal crash course in the difference between horse and pig. But we needed the hard head of the boar to break through the wooden barrier between us and the cliff face.

There just wasn't a lot of room to get them to _stop_. So when they ran directly into the wall, well, we both ended up on the ground, trying to remember how to breathe. From above, there was an amused whuff of sound, and as my vision cleared, I caught a brief glimpse of the golden wolf before he pulled back.

I suppose I would have found it funny too, if I'd seen it.

Link sat up with a faint groan of his own, and we had to help one another up to our feet; it was mostly luck that neither of us hadn't actually broken things in that rough landing.

This time, the wolf didn't deign to speak with me while he also tested and taught Link. We just... sat together, watching as the sun turned the sky into fire, before it vanished, and the sky shifted to that velvety blue-black, quickly becoming peppered with stars.

He vanished again as Link groaned for a second time, and half sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

"There really has to be an easier way to do that," he mumbled.

"Probably," I smirked a little, then offered him a hand up. "But it really is amusing."

He stuck his tongue out at me, even as he accepted my hand, which only made my smirk widen. Heroes are so much fun to tease.

The darkness was our friend, and the bulbin's enemy as we slid into their encampment. What few were on the ground Link felled quickly, and those perched on watch towers I silenced with arrows. We traveled through the entire encampment in as much stealth as possible, only to come upon another series of spiked wooden fences that barred the path to the prison.

"Where did they even _get_ all this wood?" I muttered, glaring at it. "It's all green at that, this won't burn well at _all_."

"Are there boars in the pen?" Link asked, motioning to the gate behind us.

"You're welcome to check," I said with a faint frown, still pondering the fences. "I suppose if nothing else we can climb them..."

I heard the gate creak open behind me, and paid it no mind; Link was good with animals, including the battle boars, so I wasn't inclined towards worry.

It was when he yelped in surprise that I realized something had gone wrong. I turned, with every intent of going to his aid when the bulbin encampment was suddenly _swarmed_ with the creatures. Though there wasn't much room between the fence and the pen, they managed to take up all of it, brandishing clubs and threatening with drawn arrows.

I was stuck, and while I was not _afraid_ of pain, that many bulbin could put the hurt on _anyone_. Strangely, they weren't actually moving to attack... just keep me pinned, separated from Link and the fight he was in the middle of. I could _hear_ it, but I couldn't see well enough to figure out what was happening... I only knew that most of the cries of pain did _not_ come from Link.

And apparently, the bulbin were poor losers; they scattered at some roared command in their own language, and the pig pen was lit on fire from the other side. The pig pen was not made of green wood, but old, dried wood. It went up _fast,_ and I had no Water Medallion to help me put it out.

Link yelled something incoherent as I tried to pull open the gate that was stuck fast, and I heard the squeal of a frantic pig. I jumped back and to the side as the battle boar crashed through the gate, and reached out on reflex and instinct alone; Link's outstretched hand grabbed mine and pulled, and we both clung to the boar's saddle as it pounded through the fences between us and the prison.

Fortunately, it was a straight shot, and the boar ran out of steam before we ran out of desert. The prison towered high over our heads, a magnificent building of white and gold desert stone that still stood strong, despite the centuries that had passed since both its creation, and its abandonment. While it had also become full night, the chill that rose from the place was not at all natural. Link shivered a little just looking at it, and drew closer to me.

"What... is this place?" Midna asked, peering up at it.

"This... this was once..." After a moment I just shook my head. "Never mind what it once was. It's a prison. When Hyrule had a particularly vicious criminal to house, they would be sent here. If that criminal was given a death sentence, they were sent through the Mirror of Twilight, which is there."

And I pointed up; while one can't make out the amphitheater at the top—most of which was a crumbled, toppled mess now—the six pillars, which house the Sage constructs, were easily seen.

"So we need to get up there," Midna said, her tone somewhere between uneasy and eager. "How? Do we climb?"

"We could," I admitted, not bothering to hide my shiver of distaste. "But it might be easier to come at it from within. There's a set of stairs and a stone path that should lead us right to it. I think..."

Or so I hoped. In my defense, I had _always_ climbed the exterior, mostly to avoid having to deal with both guards and inmates that would have barred my way.

"You think?"

I shrugged a little.

"I've never been inside. When I tried to fix things, I threw up a grappling hook and climbed, just like you said. It's never been _easy_ , though. And before you ask, no, I don't currently have any grappling hooks, and I don't see anything down here that the clawshot can grab hold of. You're welcome to check, though."

Midna made a face at me as we ascended the somewhat crumbling stairs, but she floated up to check the walls and see if I was wrong or right. Soon enough she was back, and her expression said it all; I sighed a little, and looked at the open doorway, trying to ignore the way it made shivers run down my spine.

"In we go, then," I said grimly.

Link swallowed audibly, and as Midna returned to his shadow, stepped even closer to me.

"This place feels... cold," he said nervously.

"Well, the desert has never been a place that could precisely called _friendly_ ," I said, forcing myself to start down the stairs that led into the prison. "But this prison is a special sort of angry."

"Was it always?"

"No, not always... but I'm not entirely sure it could ever have been called a _good_ place, Link," I said, pushing the memories away before they could try to swamp me. "What it is now is just what's happened over time. So be careful."

He nodded, and then, to my surprise, reached out and grabbed my hand. Whether he was trying to comfort me, himself, or just needed someone to hold onto, I'm not sure, but after a startled moment, I curled my fingers around his in response.

Now, the prison had been abandoned for at least two centuries at this point. The magics placed upon it—preservation, holding, power-dampening—were slowly corroding. Soon enough, I assumed, it would fall to time, and eventually be erased entirely.

But I hadn't quite considered just how much the desert wanted to reclaim it. The sinking sand at the base of the stairs was my first clue. The skeletons that sprawled across the stones seemed like they were reaching for the stairs. Link stared in mute horror, and his grip on my hand tightened. I pressed my lips together tightly for a moment, then gestured with my free hand.

"Welcome," I said sardonically, "to Arbiter's Grounds."

Truthfully, I had no desire to go in either. In point of fact, I should have gone back to Castletown, gotten plenty of rope and grappling hooks, and gone up the outside like I always had. But we were there, and I was too stubborn to back out... so once Link was a little more sure of himself, we picked our way across the stone platforms that remained, opened the gate, and went deeper in.

I wouldn't say we walked into an ambush, because in truth, we didn't. We just walked into a familiar, _highly_ aggravating situation.

The entrance to the cells is grandeur itself, or rather, it was clear from stepping in that it _used_ to be. A chandelier overhead was dark now, but gave the impression that it would have shed quite a lot of light if it had been properly tended to. Statues that were black with age still glimmered... those that were standing upright, at least. The stonework that still survived suggested that this entrance floor had once held a mosaic of some sort.

At the far end of the room, a set of stairs led upwards, beyond a raised portcullis. Four pillars, two one each side of the stairs, glowed with a blue flame, and the sight of it pinged off a chain of memories. I had just enough time to swear before the poe lanterns flew out from beyond the hallway, and stole the fire. They spun about us briefly, tauntingly, and the echo of cold, cruel laughter filled the air before they split; three vanishing through walls and floor, while the fourth swung wildly overhead, just out of range.

"...what do we do now?" Link asked a bit plaintively.

I sighed angrily, and pinched the bridge of my nose, mentally counting to ten. Twice. Taking my anger out on Link wouldn't help anything, and it was hardly _his_ fault that poes are assholes. On the bright side, _dealing_ with poes isn't exactly difficult, it just generally requires a lot of patience.

"Break the lantern," I said after a moment. "The lanterns are their connection to this world, so they break, they lose their hold, they move on. And with any luck, that will put the fire back to where it's supposed to be."

This was, of course, easier _said_ than done. This was not a young poe, ripe with anger and easy to bait. This was a poe who had been around for a while, whose anger had turned cold and calculating. Spirits of the dead they might be, but poe have never been _mindless_. Incoherent with rage, sure, but there is always some vestige of the person who died left within them.

Luring it down into range took calculated indifference, but once engaged, the poe was quite willing to try and lay us both out with the power that came from the enchanted fire it carried. Link and the Master Sword were both better suited for defeating the poes at that... the blade already repelled evil, so slicing through the poe lantern was much like sending a warm knife into butter.

It screeched in anger as it was forcibly removed from the world, its lantern sliced neatly in half. The fire—much like the ancient blue fire we had carried in another lifetime—at first wavered in place before it moved off, drifting left, then right before it found its place on the front left pillar.

"...one down. Three to go."

"We're going to have the search the whole prison, aren't we?" Midna asked, her expression sour.

"Probably," I sighed.

"Maybe not," Link said after a minute, looking at the robes the poe spirit had left behind. "If... if there's a scent, I bet I could track them."

I blinked. Midna did too.

"You know, that's not a half-bad idea," she said slowly.

"I hadn't even thought of that," I admitted. "You sure you're up for it?"

Link nodded firmly.

"It'll make it go faster, right? I can do it."

With a touch of spell, Link melted down into the black and gray wolf, who planted his nose in the hood of the robe, sniffed a few times, then had a sneezing fit. Midna giggled, even as I worked to hide my grin.

"Reeks, huh?"

He nodded, sneezed a few more times, then started sniffing around in a slow circle, trying to pick up the trail. When he found it, he gave a faint yip of glee, and then we were off.

The guards who had eventually abandoned the place had certainly been thorough in locking the doors behind them. Whatever prisoners there had been left by that point had all been left behind, with no way out, and no access to food or fresh water. A number of skeletons had what was left of ancient spears or swords in them; whether they had been guards or prisoners, no one could really say.

Of course, it didn't really matter any more; what they had been was not what they were, and what they _were_ was a straight up pain in the ass. Stalkin, stalfos, re-dead knights... basically, if it was dead and could be reanimated, it got in the way. _Fortunately_ , dusty old bones and bandages burn very nicely. There were, naturally, rats _everywhere_ , but the rats hated the fire as much as they feared the wolf, and they mostly left us alone. The beetles, too, which was actually more luck than anything else. Since everything needed fire, and there was no need to worry about wearying myself, I kept a steady flame going in one hand, and the beetles avoided us like we had a plague.

Our second poe was almost clever; it tried to hide in a room filled with spirit lamps that glowed the same blue as the one it carried, but picking an unoccupied hook, and making itself invisible. Had it just been me, I would have shattered every lamp there, but Link led us straight to the hider. One strong slice, and the second flame was freed to return to the main room, and the back right pillar.

The third poe was hidden behind a false wall; I probably shouldn't have been surprised, but the layout of the prison was not the same as the palace layout had been. I hadn't thought any of the old passages, secret or overt, still remained. Link hadn't been able to see the switch on the wall, but after a bit of careful prodding, I found it, and the wall slid open. Before the poe even had time to react, Link darted in, snapping and snarling to keep its attention so that I could shatter the lantern.

That flame, when we made it back to the main room, was situated at the front right.

We took a break then, for food, water, and a short nap; there was no light in the prison, but we all felt weary enough that a rest was warranted. Between slogging through sand that attempted to drag one down, Re-dead knights that howled with the voices of the damned, and rats that were not actually _alive_ in any sense of the word, we were being quite worn down.

Link elected to stay as a wolf, which I didn't argue with. I just used him as a furry pillow. Strangely, though the prison is a pit of malevolence, I did not have any dreams that I can recall. I actually felt quite well rested when I woke.

Our final poe decided to be a sneak, and get some heavy back up.

The path led us to a room of worship,where I spend a long moment transfixed with surprise; the Gerudo goddess of the sands, in miniature, adorned one wall. Somehow, flames rested, still burning, in both of her flattened palms; before her were dead braziers, and the long solidified remains of offerings. In truth, the room appeared to be a dead end, but I was too stunned to care. I wondered, I still do, who put it there.

"Who's that?" Midna asked after we'd waded across the shifting sands between us and the carving.

"When my people still lived in this desert, she was our patron goddess," I said after a long moment, reached out to brush my fingers over the stone snake tail.

"You didn't worship the three?"

"Personally, I don't worship anyone," I said, shaking my head a little and stepping back. "The Gerudo people though, worshiped the Goddess of the Sands. When you live in a desert, it seems prudent to worship a deity that can control the wind, though. Whether she's real or not... That's more for theologists than me."

Link whined a little, and pawed at two of the five braziers, then carefully nudged my right side; I still have fire in my right hand, so after a moment, I shared it with the two he'd indicated, and off to the side, a wall slowly shifted open.

"And Link is right, we should move on. One last poe, and then..."

Well, hopefully, a set of stairs up, leading out to the amphitheater where the Mirror of Twilight awaited.

The room we stepped into was far colder than it had any right to be, with spirit lamps once more lining the walls. The door we stepped through closed with a sharp crack, and then to compound or problems, a somewhat rusted portcullis dropped down to seal us in. The other door we could see that led outwards—theoretically—was also blocked.

The room itself was large, far larger than any underground room had a right to be, but the ceiling had a hole in it showcasing a block of the sky. It was apparently night again, as silvery moonlight slid in, highlighting a black sword that was bound with spelled ropes and talismans. The sword itself was at least a quarter of the way buried into the stone flooring, but it was at least two feet taller than I was.

This as not a comforting realization.

Link made a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a whine, and took a few hesitant steps back, tail tucked partially between his legs. I could hardly blame him; whatever the spells were sealing, it was strong. The spells were stronger, but only just, and they were withering with time and what small amount of weather the hole in the ceiling let through.

"What's _in_ here?" Midna whispered.

"Trouble..." I replied grimly. " _Big_ trouble. Let's find our poe and get out of here..."

Link sneezed, then nodded; before we could move, however, there was a chilling little laugh, and one of the ropes abruptly snapped.

"...shit..."

The sword glowed at first, with faint red runes that grew brighter as whatever it housed returned to a state of awareness. Abruptly, the rest of the ropes and talismans were engulfed in flame that went out as quickly as it appeared. The poe that had stolen the flame laughed again, but that laugh was quickly cut off by whatever it had released; the black sword that had worked free of the ground swung almost impossibly fast and sheered the lamp in half...

And then it absorbed the flame and poe's soul both, and we saw what held the sword.

It was tall, much taller than anything dead had any right to be. It's head was a beast's skull of some sort, with horns, but also the sharp teeth of a predator—plausibly some ancient form of lizalfos or dynalfos. It wore a long, black robe with an open, high collar and long sleeves, and I could make out some type of embroidery along the hems, though it seemed to shift like smoke, defying a close examination.

"Link," I said lowly, "you _might_ need to play the four-footed distraction here."

"What're you going to do?" Midna asked. I could hear the concern and fear in her voice as we stared at the creature, who... seemed to be getting the stiffness out of its undead joints.

"I have no idea," I said bluntly. "We're just going to have to wing... wait.. Change of plans. I'll be the distraction. Link. Human form. Wait until it's focused on me, then use the Master Sword."

Link whined a little, then obliged, and shifted to human, Midna taking cover in his shadow as I changed form to the sand cat, and shook myself out.

"Be careful," he said, his eyes on the giant poe.

I flirted my tail in response, then rushed in, immediately catching the creature's eye. That huge sword swung in a sharp, overhand arc that—had I remained in my human form—would have been difficult to dodge. I let the instincts of the cat take over and I leaped away as the sword tip embedded itself into the ground. Fortunately, the black sword was shaped a bit like a meat cleaver with an extra inch or two of a spike at the tip. A fearsome weapon when wielded with skill, the tip also caused trouble when the overhead swing wasn't _stopped_ by a body.

As in, trouble for the monster, not trouble for us. The blade became briefly imbedded in the ground; I bounded up the flat as the creature tried to work the blade free, and latched onto the skull with all four sets of claws.

Undead or not, it _felt_ that. I couldn't stay hooked for too long, however; it only needed the one hand to wield that giant sword, which left the other free to grab for me. With a hiss and a spit, I kicked myself free, and landed on the rough stone with a loud yowl of challenge. The sword worked free, and was launched at me again, this time in a low swipe that I had to jump over. Fortunately for me, a sword of that size really has a hard time hitting a target the size of a housecat, especially when the cat is expecting it.

Pissing the thing off worked both to my advantage, and to Link's; it focused solely on me, roaring in frustrated fury every time it missed, or I was able to leave new clawmarks in the skull, and allowed Link to workaround into the best position to use the Master Sword.

His first attempt did not go so well; while the black sword was embedded into the ground after yet another missed strike, he rushed in on the left, the side with the free hand, and was almost immediately backhanded into the nearest wall with a painful sounding thud. It was plain that even with the sword stuck in the ground, the creature was too large to attack head on.

While he was dazed, he was not unconscious, so I led the creature a merry chase in the opposite direction to give him a chance for recovery; the second attack was more along the lines of what I had taught him, and the Master Sword plunged into it from behind, straight through where a living being's heart would have been.

The creature howled, then collapsed forward as Link yanked his sword out and took a number of quick steps backwards, just in case. The sword, however, crumbled into dust, and the creature itself exploded into a swarm of bugs, of all things, that headed straight for the hole to the desert.

One quick shift back and fireball ended any potential _future_ threat from that quarter.

"Well done," I said, once the bugs had become nothing more than ash. "What was that first attempt meant to be, though?"

He smiled sheepishly.

"I thought I could cut off its head, but..."

"But you're not _quite_ tall enough for that," I finished dryly. "And it reacted faster than you expected, hm?"

Link nodded, and rubbed his ribs with a grimace.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just some bruises," he said quickly.

I gave him a faintly skeptical look, but didn't press; if he was so sure, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

The enchanted flame, forgotten until that point, flared to life, then took off through the wall; something about it's passage tripped a mechanism, because the next thing to happen was the portcullises creaked and complained their way back up.

"That's that then," I nodded a little. "That main gate should be opened again, and the stairs up can't be too far behind."

"What's in that room?" Link asked, pointing to the second door.

"Given that this room was all about sealing whatever _that_ thing was away... Hn. There might be something interesting there. We may as well go check it out."

I wasn't sure what to expect, really. I had a vague idea that it might be a special sort of prison cell, or maybe a punishment or torture room. At the very least, maybe a records room, full of dust and crumbling papers.

It was a treasure room. It was not piled _high_ with gold and gems, but gold and gems were evident. Ancient pieces of Gerudo treasure were lined up on shelves that were made of stone, books were preserved in sealed metal treasure chests, and a lone key hung from a golden chain, caught on the remnants of a scrap of wood.

"I'll be damned," I said after a long minute. "When everything is done, I'm going to have to clear this stuff out."

"What _is_ all of it?" Link asked, eyes wide.

"I don't know. But it's worth saving," I said. Then, after a moment of thought, added; "Just in case, let's take that key. We may need it to get further in."

It was so incongruously small that it looked more like it would open a jewelry box lock than anything else, but from its worn and slightly tarnished state, it looked like something that had been used often. And if the theoretical stairs held a locked door, well, a key was much faster than a pick.

When we made our way back to the main room after a rest, all four pillars were lit, and the portcullis had raised back up. Up the stairs we went, into a dimly lit room beyond that held a tall pillar, and no sign of any stairs. If not for the platform and the doorway up at the top, I would have been willing to swear that it was a dead end.

"Look around," I said instead. "A keyhole or a switch must unlock the stairs."

Link nodded, and went to comb the other half of the room; Midna, after a few minutes, jumped out of his shadow to help, and was, in fact, the one who found the hand crank, calling Link over to it. I turned to watch, though I didn't interfere.

It looked difficult to move at first, gears grinding with centuries worth of dust and sand in them, but once he managed to get past the initial resistance, it almost seemed to spin on its own. Around the room, torches abruptly lit, and now that we could see more clearly, the outline of a hidden door was unmistakeable. It started to open, but only managed a quarter of the way before it got stuck.

Together, Link and I managed to pry it open enough for us to pass through, revealing a set of stairs that wound upwards in a tight spiral. With another whoosh of sound, fire popped up at regular intervals, held in stone divots overhead, lighting the path. Sand was piled on the stairs, and dust, but the stairs themselves were sound, and we made our way up feeling the faintest breaths of air that came from outside.

"Do you think that's it?" Link asked when we paused for a short rest—it was a _long_ staircase.

"Hopefully, yes," I sighed a little. "But I wouldn't hold my breath. They went to a lot of trouble to hide this staircase..."

"Can you... um... use your magic to detect anything?"

It was the first time he'd asked the question so directly. After a moment of being surprised, I shook my head.

"This place is filled with the restless souls of the dead. Even if they're not strong enough to manifest, any sort of detection for trouble I might try would be thrown off by their malice and desire _to_ manifest."

"Oh..." He was quiet for a minute, taking a drink of water from his skin. "Raiha?"

"Mn?"

"...you can clearly do all of this without my help, so why am _I_ here?"

"Because that's how it's supposed to be."

He blinked, taken aback by the matter-of-fact answer. I sighed a little, and took a sip from my own water as I pulled together the proper thoughts; in truth, I'd been waiting for this question for a while. He was certainly strong enough now to do without my help, after all.

"What I am is not what you are," I finally said. "You are a Hero. If I didn't exist, you still would have gone on this venture. In point of fact, if they hadn't tried to take out my Light Spirits, I would have no _reason_ to be directly involved. You're much smarter and stronger than you give yourself credit for, and just the fact that you decided to come along without prompting shows that you would have walked this path anyways, because it is the _right_ path."

He blushed a little, and scratched the back of his neck.

"To bring it to the most basic point, you're here because, believe it or not, I need your help. There are things here that _only_ you can do, things that you are destined to do, where all I can do is stand back and watch." I was quiet for a moment, then sighed a little. "And also because you are a friend, one that I don't have to look over my shoulder to know is guarding my back."

The last was mostly sentiment, even as it was the truth. I know that I am not the best person in the world; when necessary, I am ruthless, heartless, cold, and unfeeling. I take care with building and breaking bonds between myself and others, and most of the time, I simply don't. Only with the Princess and the Hero do I ever really seek to try. Even then, it is a tenuous connection, for I do not age, and cannot die until I have fulfilled my mandate.

"Come," I said briskly, getting to my feet. "We still have a ways to go."


	16. Fifteen

Fifteen

Up and up and up further went the stairs, finally terminating in a small landing that we immediately sprawled upon.

"That's what you get for having to walk," Midna teased in a singsong voice.

"Unless you're volunteering to float us up whatever stairs come next, zip it," I said wearily.

"What, and deprive you of the exercise?~"

I was tired enough to make a rude gesture, which only made her laugh. Link groaned a little.

"It's just beyond these doors, right?" Midna asked eagerly, floating before the sealed door.

"Maybe? I can't tell; the door's been warded so thoroughly that it's kind of hard to sense, and the Mirror's not an overt presence when it's not active. Besides, we need to rest. We need food, and sleep, and _then_ we can go up and see what's to be done about the Mirror."

"Tch. You and your mortal inconveniences," she sighed.

It was for show, so I just ignored her, and went about getting as much sand off the stone as I could so that we could sleep _slightly_ grit free.

"When we get back, I'm finding a Goron hot spring to soak all this crap out," I grumbled.

Link was already mostly asleep, and made a sound of protest when I moved him to a safer spot than the stair opening. Since he was being stubborn, I just draped his bedroll over him before I wrapped up in mine and passed out for several hours.

I admit, these adventures tend to take place in a lot of underground, or otherwise _dark_ places where it's hard to keep track of time. I say a few hours, but I had no real way of judging. The flames did not go out, and there was no windows through which we could see sun or moonlight. The stone was cool to the touch, blocking out both the desert's merciless heat _and_ pitiless cold, which was why it is such a useful building tool.

Either way, once again I slept deep and dreamless, though there was the faintest prickle of dread along the edges of conscious thought. There was, a part of me knew, no way that this was going to be so simple. True, we'd faced four separate entities that had caused us some grief, but this place had been locked _up_ before being abandoned. That suggested that whatever was beyond the door had been the reason the guards had run.

I woke, stretched, ate, and tried to not wonder what would come next. Link groaned a little when I prodded him awake, but rolled over after a few minutes and sat up blearily, rubbing his eyes. I frowned a little; in the firelight it wasn't easy to see, but I got the sense that something wasn't quite _right_ with him.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Huhh?" He yawned a bit, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You're _sure_?"

Link nodded again, and got up slowly, putting away his bedroll and eating a few bites of food; the water and food _did_ seem to revive him, so I let the matter drop for the moment.

In my defense, I figured it was just a lack of sleep. Whatever schedule we have when we're out in the light, it's difficult to impossible to keep to when there's no light to be seen.

The door, when we examined it, was shut tight. Finding the keyhole required a bit of tricky manipulations; several symbols could be pressed, but there was an _order_ to them. And naturally, if they weren't pressed in the right order, a variety of things happened.

Darts, for example. Also spikes, from the floor _and_ the ceiling. One combination actually retracted the stairs, leaving only a deep, dark pit.

"This place is _mean_ ," Midna opined as she hovered over the drop, looking down with interest. "Why would it be made like this?"

"Sadism," I grumped, taking a step up to look more closely at the glyphs.

She giggled a little.

"I suppose I can't argue with _that_ , but really.. why? It's a long drop for someone who can't float or fly."

I sighed a little, and shook my head.

"This stair isn't actually that hard to defend," Link said abruptly. "It's pretty narrow, and if you had enough people up here at the top, you could hold it for a long time."

"Mmm... and if the spells for dampening magic only worked inside, once you reached the open air, you could theoretically get yourself to safety if you had the ability. Even if you didn't, a swift death from a jump is probably preferable to whatever went on here," I added absently. "Mn. All right. Let's see if this works..."

Fortunately for all of us, there was a grinding clunk, and a small slot opened in the wall, with a keyhole that was just the right size for the key we carried. With a sharp click and a slow, sandy crunch, the door rose upwards. It was accompanied by a faint ticking sound, and on reflex I grabbed the key,then headed through the door at a run. Link yelped, and followed swiftly, while Midna returned to the safety of his shadow. The narrow hallway was dimly lit, but thankfully straight and held no obstacles, and we made it through the door at the other end moments before it came crashing down.

"I _hate_ timers on doors," I muttered, spitting dust and sand. "I understand the purpose of them, but still. _Why?_ "

Link, in the process of taking a drink, only nodded in agreement.

The room was large, and again, only dimly lit. At one point it may have been the judgment hall, but now it was just a broken sinkhole of stone and sand. Across the room, the faint outline of a door could be made out, letting in silver moonlight, and cool night air. In the middle, half-buried in the sinkhole, was the _largest_ skeleton I had ever seen. It looked to be of a type with the one who had wielded the black sword, just... ten times larger.

And, fortunately for us, very dead.

I could feel the Mirror singing softly now, as sound that abruptly peaked at we walked down the middle of the room; there was no point, after all, in cutting around if the thing was _dead_. A short bark of cruel laughter had us pausing, and then Zant appeared on top of the creature's head.

He looked as he had when we'd seen him first at Lanayru's pool, his face hidden by that strange, almost Zora-esque mask, black robes with green geometric patterns and sleeves that covered his hands... but to my satisfaction, he still held himself as though he had suffered injury. Slowly, I began reaching for my bow... if he held still _just_ long enough...

"You still live," he said, and his voice was thick with malice. "No wonder some call you hero. Ah, but what a bittersweet reunion this shall be. Truly! For I fear this is the last time I will see any of you alive..."

He gathered the malice, and shaped it into a spell, a sword of black and red much like what we had faced earlier. I stopped going for my bow and instead grabbed Link, yanking him back and away as the sword stabbed down into the skull, and the reanimation spell swept over it. Zant turned away with a fluttering sweep of his long sleeves, and vanished as we scrambled back up the path.

And in that moment, I swear I heard the sound of cracking glass.

A red light grew in the eyes of the skull, and slowly, slowly, it lifted itself out of the sand. It didn't matter that the lower half of the creature was nonexistent, just the upper body was tall enough, and had enough reach that it almost swiped us both anyways.

"I," I growled, "am going to _personally_ make Zant's life hell when I get my hands on him."

"Wait in line," Midna replied, though she stayed within the safety of Link's shadow. "I have first dibs."

"Dibs later, this thing first," Link said, staring at it. "What do we do?"

Further talk was postponed; the creature took in a breath—and no, don't ask me how, I have _no_ idea how a dead thing breathes—then exhaled a plume of mixed fire and smoke. Midna dove back into the safety of Link's shadow, while the Hero and I split apart, running left and right, respectively. I could see that the bones at the base of the spine were smoking, and riddled with cracks.

"It's brittle," I called. "Even if he could infuse it with a sort-of life, Zant can't change the fact that it's been lying in the sand for centuries! If we can break the bones of the spine, and get the head down to a level we can _reach_ , all we have to do is bust that sword out, and it should go back to being a dead thing!"

"How do we break the spine?" Link called back.

"You have bombs! Use them!"

Though it was true that the blast from a bomb had a limited range, the concussion of it most assuredly shattered the bones into distinct fragments. Getting close enough to _lob_ the bombs took patience and timing, but fortunately, for all its size, the creature was slow, and its movements were easily read.

It _tried_ to call up help, but it's hard to get undead bodies to rise out from under melted glass, and even if my fireballs lacked the same impact at the bombs, I was not above using that fire for my own ends. I even hit the sword a couple of times, but it was too deeply lodge to simply be blasted out. Annoyingly enough, since that would have been the end of it.

When the last of the extended spine shattered, the creature fell back with a howl, the body cracking and snapping into pieces as the weight of the skull and the fall into the mixed glass and sand, and something must have shifted _under_ the sand from the impact, because the next thing we knew, the sand was sifting away at a rapid pace, and in short order we stood on a pillar that only extended halfway up the sides of a deep pit.

" _Really_?" I asked of no one in particular.

Link made a sheepish sound, and I just shook my head a little.

"Fine. Let's get the sword out of this thing, and then work on getting the hell out of here."

Rule number one about undead things reanimated by enchanted items. If there is still a piece _left_ attached to the enchanted item, it is still alive. And most of the time, it is _especially_ annoyed.

This case proved no different; no sooner than I had said something than the skull shuddered and lifted itself up off the ground. It made a short rush at us; I dodged, Link didn't. Apparently it seemed to think that Link was the bigger threat, because it went down after him, and began to chase him around in circles.

I won't lie, it _was_ kind of amusing. But it also was getting us nowhere, so on the third circuit, I decided enough was enough, and launched myself at the skull. I managed to grab a horn, which threw off the creature's aim—dark golden-black fireballs, or something akin to them—and held on for dear life as it tried to throw me off.

I have ridden more rambunctious creatures before, to be certain, and undoubtedly will again, but it was certainly _exciting_ trying to stay on that thing. I scrambled from the horns to the fur, which was hot enough to burn my hands, and the from the fur to the skull itself, using the ancient spears embedded in the bone to keep myself from taking a flying leap that would probably have broken something.

The _other_ thing about undead beings reanimated by enchanted items was that if the enchantment is still running, often times, it does _not_ enjoy being forced to let go. The sword was not alive any more than the skull was, but it was thoroughly defensive of being _attached_. Black lightning crawled along my skin, trying to force me into letting go of the sword, and it was not even _remotely_ pleasant.

But I was not powerless, and where darkness tries to take purchase, if there is no other recourse, I can be there as the light. The distance between myself and my spirits is immaterial; when I need the be the light, I simply _am_.

And so I was.

The skull screamed out the last sound of the doomed as the sword dissolved, and careened off several walls; without my handhold, I was sent flying, and made friends with both a wall and the marginally softer sand that covered the ground. A cracking crunch heralded the final death of the skeletal creature, and it must have jarred something loose, as the central pillar traveled up till it was level with the floor, and stone bridges popped out to either sides, while a stone ladder—not a staircase—formed along the pillar's side.

"Raiha?!"

Link skidded to a halt near me, panting for breath and anxious.

"Ow," I said succinctly.

He surprised me then; he didn't wait for me to sit up, he half-lifted me into a sitting position and then hugged me tight enough that I squeaked. It didn't last long, mostly because I made him let go. In my defense, I hadn't exactly hit the wall _or_ the ground gently, and the sudden hug had everything that had cracked or broken—at least three ribs—grating in painfully unpleasant ways.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" he said anxiously as I swore under my breath. "I just- I mean..."

"Puppy, next time? Let me sit up on my own first," I groaned, hand to my ribs. "Don't move someone who's made speeding contact with a wall. Or the ground. Not without a doctor or healer's say-so."

"Sorry..."

He looked so pitiful, that I couldn't help but sigh and pat his shoulder lightly, pain or not. In truth, I was touched that he was so worried about me; it had been a long time since concern had touched me in more than a nebulous sort of sense.

I hurt enough that I pulled out the Ocarina of Time, and let the magic be amplified through the power of the ancient artifact; without the aid of a spring, this was the fastest, most efficient way to recover. And it gave me a chance to hold a precious memory forth.

It also had the side benefit of healing the injuries Link garnered, though it only subdued his growing illness, which I would not learn about for some time yet. I felt more relaxed by the time I put the instrument away, and got swiftly to my feet.

"Well, come on then. We've got our way out, and up. Let's use it."

Link jumped, then climbed to his feet and followed after. Midna, excited, was already in the lead thanks to her ability to float, though she did us the courtesy of waiting until we caught up before she zipped out the door.

Of course, the outer stair was in worse shape than the inner; large gaps of broken stone meant making quick jumps that were hard to see in the silver of a crescent moon that lit the night. Link slipped once and yelped as he banged his chin on the rough stone. I winced in sympathy, and helped him up from that one.

We entered through a half-crumbled wall and the sand-covered amphitheater spread out before us; a small set of stairs led to the platform where the Mirror of Twilight had been mounted, across from the obsidian obelisk that was the stable pathway in. I had _wanted_ , back when I first made the mirror, to experiment and see what putting the portal onto different types of stone might do. I never did get around to it before it was stolen...

Before we could get to it, of course, we _had_ to run into five of the damn shadow beasts. If I hadn't already suspected something was up before, that would have confirmed it; it hadn't escaped my notice that these things had a habit of turning up in places where it was plausible we'd need to return to... and the song of the Mirror was oddly muted.

It probably would have been _faster_ if Link had shifted to wolf, but they had actually managed to catch up by surprise enough that we both ended up reacting instead of thinking. Fortunately, for both my ego and his, we managed to dispatch all of them without a resurrection shriek, in record time.

Once they were dealt with, Midna wasted no time in shooting up those stairs to discover what I had sensed.

"It's _broken!_ " she cried in dismay.

Link rushed up the stairs to her, and I followed more slowly; sure enough, the mirror had been damaged... but unlike Midna thought, it was not broken irreparably. The trick would be to find the missing pieces, and for that...

I gritted my teeth, and for a moment hated the circumstances that were pushing me to this. Of all the things I least wanted to do, speaking to these failed constructs was probably the worst at the moment.

The sage constructs were another creation of mine that I had agreed to make with some moderate reluctance. I had _hoped_ to imbue them with enough consciousness to make good judgments on the people who were imprisoned here...

To say that this failed miserably would have been something of an understatement. I had _planned_ to base them off the Sages in my memories, the friends and companions that I had loved dearly, and would have given a great deal to return to, regardless of what it would have meant for Hyrule. But before I had managed to implement more than a quarter of the planned personality, I had been called away to deal with something else.

And the king at the time had simply taken my unfinished works, and bound them here with his own spells, and _his_ idea of what justice was.

Unfinished they had been, but once bound, there was little I could do to finish my work; the generic Hylian forms had become permanent, and the constructs never obtained that which I had planned for them.

I hope that someday, when I have done what I am mandated, I can return there, and free them from this. Even with their ability to hibernate until they are called upon, it is not what I wanted. Also, I want to turn that entire prison into a giant _sinkhole_ , and see what I can do about easing the malice of the desert itself...

Ah, I rush ahead. Back to the moment, Raiha...

"I know you're aware,"I said, my voice tight, and my face turned up to three of the six towers. "You know what happened. Get down here and tell me. _Now_."

Link blinked at me, then started a little as five of medallions topping the six prominent towers suddenly had a white,masked figure standing over them. One at a time they drifted down,until they were at the foot of the stairs. As one, the constructs bowed.

"Oh stop it," I snapped. "And none of the wordy speeches this time,we don't have time for it. What happened?"

The constructs all shared a look, before the Light construct drifted forward.

"You already know, that _he_ has broken free."

I bit my tongue on a tart response; the Sage constructs often took things _quite_ literal.

"Yes," I said finally. "We know."

"It's hard to miss the golden diamond around the castle," Midna muttered.

I flashed a brief smirk at her; clearly she had picked up on my mood and unlike me, she was not afraid to give voice to her displeasure.

"This false king of the twilight, he has fragmented the Mirror that we were sworn to guard," Light continued. "But he used _his_ power, and thus, could not break it entire. Instead, it has been scattered to three points in this world."

"Raiha?" Link's voice was tentative, and I half turned with a raised eyebrow. "You've told us his name before, but... just who _is_ Ganondorf?"

"...a fair question," I sighed a little. "A long, _long_ time ago, this desert used to be the lands of my people, the Gerudo. Our traditions were... different, and did little to help the people endure. We were driven to thievery, among other unsavory acts, to survive. As you can imagine, this gave us something of a bad reputation, which we were then forced to live up to because we wanted to _live_."

Link nodded, and Midna floated up to perch on the frame, one hand lightly touching the Mirror shard.

"After centuries of this, one king finally had enough, and decided that since Hyrule was so plentiful, he was going to invade it. Under the guise of a treaty, promising a new way of life for both people, he schemed to take Hyrule Castle, kill the king, and imprison, or do away with the princess.

"In the end, he failed at all of these because of a young boy, the Princess Zelda of that time, and myself, who were all able to testify against Ganondorf's true intentions. For a time, he was imprisoned within Hyrule Castle itself, under close watch, and then, for a reason I'm _still_ not clear on, he was suddenly brought here, to be executed."

"I hear a but in there," Midna said.

"You're not wrong," I said dryly. "Unfortunately, what Ganondorf wanted more than Hyrule, was Hyrule's path into the Sacred Realm, to gain the power of the Triforce. And, due to events that were out of my hands, he did manage to get a piece of it."

"What?! How?!" she demanded.

"Because when you cross a timeline with a piece of the Triforce, time itself tries to correct this problem," I sighed. "The Hero of Time returned to a past that he could affect, but he brought with him the Triforce piece from that line. And since you cannot have more than one completed Triforce in a time, the one that was here fragmented. Zelda became the carrier of Wisdom, the same power that bolsters you now, Midna, while Link is, and has ever been, the carrier of the Triforce of Courage. The third piece, Power, went straight to the one who wanted it most."

It was a _very_ brief explanation, but it contained most of the information I still personally retain from those memories of floating amidst the times of the goddesses. Brief interactions with the Triforce of Wisdom confirmed this as fact, not theory, only a few years after Ganondorf's banishment through the mirror.

"And though we tried to execute him, we did not realize that it had been granted to him," Light interjected. "He destroyed one of us, and we are not beings made for battle. Our only recourse was to send him into the Realm of Twilight."

I hissed out a few choice words in ancient Hylian, then pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath, sensing more than seeing Link's alarm.

"So, you see, this is why all of this is ultimately my fault," I said, turning to Midna with an annoyed huff. "Yes, there were things outside my control, such as the sundering of the Triforce, but none of this, specifically, would have happened without _that_."

And I jabbed my finger at the shard of the mirror she sat next to, before turning back to the Sages.

"Where did Zant throw the pieces once he discovered he couldn't break them?" I demanded.

"One lies in the snowy mountain heights," intoned Spirit.

"One is in an ancient grove," Forest breathed.

"The last lies in the heavens," Fire stated.

"To your hands, they should return, though their power will be much warped," Light finished. "Be ready for it."

Without me saying a word, they bowed again, and vanished. I sighed, and dropped onto the top step with a scowl. Two of the three I could easily place; Snowpeak was the only mountain around that had snow on it, and the ancient grove could _only_ be the grove of the Temple of Time. The idea that one was somewhere up in the sky... I didn't like that one bit.

"So... he really couldn't break them..."

I glanced at Midna, who floated beside me.

"I told you. The only ones who can break it are me and you. He can damage it, sure, he can fling the pieces far and wide and make us waste time looking while his sorry ass heals up from being stabbed," and I smiled thinly. "But truly shatter it? No. He doesn't have the right blend of magic for the Mirror to give up _that_ secret."

"So... where do we go next then?" Link asked, flopping down on my other side.

"Well...we can't get to the heavens, not as we are. I'm not even sure _how_ we could get there," I admitted. "But the other two, I'm fairly sure I know. Snowpeak is the only 'snowy mountain height' in Hyrule, and we've already _been_ to the ancient grove once."

Though where it would hide in the ruins, I had no idea. While I knew how to reach the Temple of Time that had been preserved in the past, the discovery of what lay beyond...

Ah, but I get ahead of myself.

"Since there's nothing more we can do here, we may as well head back to Hyrule," I sighed. "If nothing else, Zant messed up when sending the shadow beasts after us here; now we have a faster way back that won't involve going through this place again."

Midna snickered a little, and Link grinned.

"So, where should we go?" Midna asked.

"Hn... Better to get the worst over and done with, let's go see what the trouble on Snowpeak could be. We'll have to go to Zora's Domain too."

"Oh no~" Midna teased. "Such a trial, going to see the Zora first."

I blinked. Snorted in amusement.

"Oh hush."


	17. Sixteen

Sixteen

The path to Snowpeak from Zora's Domain is a fairly short one, that only requires an hour or two of walking. Granted, the path itself is at a steep incline, and the farther up you go, the colder it gets, so on a normal day, I'm typically not to be found anywhere near it.

This situation, however, was the farthest thing from normal, and thus, reluctantly, I ascended the path with Link, keeping my complaints about the cold to myself.

In its own way, Snowpeak is a lovely place. The snow is constantly scoured by the wind to be blank and pristine, and on the rare occasions where the wind doesn't blow, but the snow falls, it has a quiet serenity that I can _almost_ enjoy.

Almost.

Ashei stood at the head of the path that lead further into the mountain, swathed much more sensibly than we were in a fur short cloak, and a facemask with the features of a yeti. I will admit, before she spoke, it gave me a start to see her, and if not for the bright red of her pants, I never would have guessed that this _was_ Ashei.

But we were not quiet in our approach; snow crunches very audibly, no matter how one tries to walk. She turned, and seemed unsurprised to see us.

"Lady Raiha. Link," she said.

Her voice put me at some ease—it was too cold for me to feel actually relaxed—and when she pulled off her head covering, at least I could be reasonably assured that we were not about to be attacked.

"What has brought you both to this dangerous place?" she asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," I replied.

"Mn... ever since Zora's Domain was iced over, this mountain has been much more restless," she said. "Colder than ever; the ice is worrying the Zora... but that's not the only thing that is."

Given that they had been frozen in the ice, I could hardly blame the Zora for worrying about the cold creeping down the mountainside.

"Apparently the beast that lives on this mountain has been coming down to Zora's Domain. I was curious, so I waited around, and sure enough, a giant appeared! I made a sketch of the thing... Here, see?"

She pulled the paper out from under her furs, and passed it to Link, who stared at it. I peered over his shoulder and raised my eyebrows; while I had heard of yeti, and seen pictures others had drawn of them, I had never really _believed_ they existed. Foolish of me, I know.

"They say it's been taking the red fish that live in their waters," she continued. "I thought to investigate further, but there's no path to be seen through this fog, and if you get lost out there, well... You'd best have a plan ready if you mean to investigate."

Link looked out over the frozen waste again, a thoughtful frown on his face.

"Let's f-find out more about the fish," I said, trying to keep my teeth from chattering too much. "And come back when we have a better id-dea of wh-what's going on."

After a moment he nodded, and I heard Ashei breath a faintly relieved sigh even as she put her headgear back on.

"I'm going to head back to town," she said. "I need supplies if I'm going to head out into that weather."

She accompanied us back to Zora's Domain, then split off to head downstream. I blew on my hands to warm them, then sighed a little.

"She's got the right idea," I said once I was feeling a little warmer. "Going out onto that mountain without a sure way back is pretty much suicidal."

"But _we_ have to go up that mountain," Link said uncertainly, absently chafing his arms.

"I know, I know... give me a moment, let me think..."

I paced, not from anxiety but because my feet still felt rather like ice; we were going to need either much _warmer_ clothes, or to spend most of our time in our animal forms to survive up on that mountain. After a moment, I paused, then held out a hand.

"Let me have that sketch for a minute."

Link passed it over without comment, and I went to the nearest Zora guard. She stood quickly at attention, but the air was curious more than anything; like the Gorons, the Zora _know_ me.

"Can I help you, Lady Raiha?"

"Maybe. Can you tell me what this is?" I asked, and showed her the sketch.

"Ah! That's the creature from Snowpeak. Is... it's holding a reekfish," She peered a little closer at the paper, then nodded in satisfaction. "Yes. Well, that certainly is impressive. We didn't think anyone other than Prince Ralis could catch this fish!"

"Why only Prince Ralis?" I asked, intrigued.

"The reekfish only like a special type of coral, like what you can see growing around the base of Mother and Child rock over there," she said, pointing at the rocks in question; around the base swam a handful of brilliantly red fish. "Prince Ralis' earring was made of that special coral, so whenever he would swim, they would flock to him. Even for us, catching reekfish takes some effort..."

I smiled wryly and nodded.

"Considering it's called a reekfish, why bother catching it at all?"

"It's quite tasty, pungent smell aside; it also has moderately curative properties, so the doctors around Hyrule tend to request it when we have an abundance."

"Huh. Thanks!"

"Of course, lady."

The guard bowed politely, and I turned to Link, who had followed.

"If we catch a reekfish and learn it's scent, we can track the snow beast," I explained. "This is perfect, actually. I wanted to see how Ralis was doing. He wasn't in the throne room, but it's been long enough that he ought to be back on his feet..."

"You're worried about him," Link said after a moment as we headed downriver, out of sight of the Zora.

"Yes. His mother was a good friend, as well as a good ruler. He's young yet for the job, so I want to help him as much as I am allowed."

"...you're a really nice person."

I scoffed a little, but didn't argue; there would be no point in trying to convince the boy otherwise. There never was.

Midna dropped us neatly at the edge of Kakariko, and once Link was changed back, we headed into town to see where the little prince was. Renado was busy working with the Gorons, so we found Beth, who was staring up the path towards the graveyard, looking rather put out.

"Beth!" Link called, smiling and lifting his hand in greeting.

"Oh, hi Link," she replied, giving him a tiny smile before the put out expression returned. "Are you here to talk some sense into the prince?"

"Talk sense?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Every day he goes up to the graveyard, and we don't see him again until after dark!" she replied, pouting. "It's really creepy in there, and Mr. Renado said that we should let him have his space, but I'm kinda worried..."

"Hmm... well, then we'll go see what's up," Link said with a nod. "Right?"

"Right," I nodded in reply. "Thank you Beth."

"Uh... you're welcome?"

Link patted her head with a grin, and then we walked up the path to the graveyard. As expected, Ralis was not actually in the graveyard itself, but beyond it, at the grave of King Zora. At our approach he stood from his kneeling position, then bowed a little.

"Lady Raiha... and your companion is Link?" he asked, his voice somewhat shy.

"Hello Ralis," I said with a sad smile. "It's been a while."

"How did you know who I was?" Link asked, eyes wide.

"In a dream, my mother came to me, and showed me your image," Ralis said, looking away. "She said that you would help save our domain, and steer our fate. I really must thank you both... Whatever you need, if I can do it, it will be done."

"Well, that's easily solved," I replied, pulling out the sketch of the snow beast and the fish. "We need to catch a reekfish."

"A reekfish?" Ralis looked between us for a moment, curious, but like all good rulers, knew when to not ask questions. "Here. My earring is made of the coral they like. If you attach it to a fishing line, I'm sure you'll be able to catch one. Just... be careful on that mountain."

And for a moment, as he handed the earring over, he looked more like a lost boy than a proud prince. Sympathetically, I reached out and lightly rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I know it means a lot to you, Ralis," I said gently. "I remember when Rutela gave you this."

"It's all right," he said, lifting his head a little. "It will help your journey... and I think, I have a sense now, of what my mother wanted, and what I should now be doing. It... feels like it is time to return home."

Like Colin, Ralis now held a new sense of purpose, and it showed in the direct look he gave me. I couldn't help but feel some pride in the boy.

"I'll come visit soon," I said lightly, stepping back. "Though I'm sure you won't have need of me."

"Of course I will!" he protested. "You are a long-time ally and-"

He stopped. Stared at me for a long moment. Then sighed.

"You're teasing me."

"Of course I am," I chuckled. "That's part of my duties as honorary family."

He huffed a little, and turned, ready to jump off into the water.

"Ralis. Before you go. Your mother wanted us to pass on a message."

He stopped, and half turned back.

"She loves you, without end. And she has always been proud of you."

Ralis swallowed a little, then nodded, and dove into the water, heading out through the shortcut to Lake Hylia.

"Yup. Totally a nice person."

I huffed a mock annoyed sigh, then reached out and shoved Link in the water.

We spent half the day in Kakariko, mostly talking to Renado and the children about what had happened, and why Ralis was now heading home. Beth seemed the most disappointed, while Malo seemed the least. Renado was pleased to know that he'd recovered enough to _head_ home. We also bought a few supplies, and I inspected the shoring up of the gate that was happening, thanks to the Gorons.

I suppose I could have stopped it, but it's not a terrible thing, to want gates for protection. The trouble lies more in using those gates to hide from the world, which hopefully, Kakariko will never do.

From Kakariko we warped to Castletown, both to hear the gossip and to barter for cold-weather gear. Trading canvas for furs was costly, but it would be worth the effort, even if we only used them the one time.

I hate being cold.

Finally, we headed back to Zora's Domain to catch a reekfish. And I have to admit, these things are _aptly_ named. Even in human form, keeping a sharp eye out for any oncoming Zora, the thing smelled absolutely _vile_. I'm not sure medicinal benefits are worth putting up with a fish that smells _that_ badly...

Though I must admit, the fish propelling itself back into the water by smacking off of Link's furry face was quite amusing.

We stayed there overnight, and if it was not _warm_ , well, there is a peace found in the sound and feel of the water that I don't really find anywhere else. And the Zora are not even remotely unnerved by the sight of a gray and black wolf, nor did they seem much interested in Midna riding on his back.

Her expression suggested that she found it surreal. I just enjoyed the peace of it.

With the dawn, we left Zora's Domain. I wrapped myself up in as much fur as I could to preserve my warmth before we wound our way up the track. Midna, once she felt the icy bite of the wind, allowed me to bundle her up as well.

"You know, if you were in feline form, it might be easier," she said as Link cast about for the scent of the fish.

"Maybe," I replied doubtfully. "But the sand cat is made for the extremes of the desert. I'm not so sure a frozen mountain wasteland is the same thing."

"Well, it's an option, at least?"

"I know."

In the end, it was the option I had to take; across the frozen river, the snow became deep, up to my knees, and visibility was limited at best. Link stood out, being a dark creature on a while plain, which made the three of us targets for the white wolfos, and keese who bore ice on their wings. True, the sandy gold-brown of the sand cat _also_ stood out, but I was lighter, and more mobile.

But I was not much warmer. When Link would dig a den to rest in, I chose to return to human shape in an effort to warm up, and curled close to the wolf and his shaggy fur. Midna, after half a day of this, retreated into the shadows both for safety, and for warmth. I could hardly blame her; if I'd been able to do such a thing, I would have.

Day two was more of the same; the blizzard hadn't let up for a moment, and packs of hungry wolfos dogged our steps. But as we climbed, the snow got thinner, even while the wind got colder. Huddling into the den that night, after eating, I gave in, and called forth a tiny seed of heat. Keeping a balancing between warming the air, and not melting the snow we needed to keep us safe meant that I didn't get much sleep.

On day three, we dug into an underground area that had been hollowed out to be a room. It wasn't much warmer than the mountain we traveled, but it was, at least, a place out of the constant wind, and the blinding whiteness of the snow. It also necessitated a return to being human, and Link immediately started shivering.

"C-c-c-can't you d-d-d-do something?" he asked plaintively.

I passed him his share of the furs, and shrugged a little.

"We could stop and I can make a f-fire for a short while," I offered, "but o-otherwise, there's n-not much."

Ashei had said the mountain was colder than usual, but I suspect not even she realized just how cold that meant. We managed to find a little nook, at least, and huddled close to the magical fire once it was built. It couldn't take the chill from the air itself, but it seemed to help Link, at the very least. When I caught myself dozing, I quickly stood, and dismissed the flames; it was time to move on, whether we were ready for it or not.

At the exit, we received a welcome surprise; a stone door with very large, obvious handprints. The snow outside was packed down tightly enough that our weight didn't disturb it, and an even greater relief came when we realized that the wind and snow had both stopped. Granted, the area was now blanketed by a thick fog, but it was certainly an improvement, and Link could track through a fog.

He made the shift back to wolf, then waited while I shot the keese out of the sky; I had no desire for either of us to be flash-frozen. After the keese had fallen, we managed about a dozen steps before the shadow beasts jumped us. They didn't seem to like the cold any more than we did, and fortunately for us, Midna was nice enough to come out and help Link make short work of them.

A hard gust of wind followed their passing and cleared the fog away, revealing the snow beast standing under a large tree with large, frozen solid leaves, highlighted by a half moon. I was surprised that the fish was still wriggling... but I suppose, considering the time it took _us_ to travel as opposed to how long it likely took him, he could have passed us to fetch another while we were still climbing.

Link shifted uneasily on his paws, then made the shift back to human to hike up the steep trail with me. The yeti turned at our approach, and blinked.

"Uh! I hear loud rukus, but you only humans!" he boomed. "I see humans not often, uh? Why you come this far to snows? You on spiritual journey? Look for true self?"

"Ah... no. It's much to cold, and I have better ways to punish myself," I said shortly.

"Raiha!" Link hissed, scandalized.

"It's _cold_ , and I want to get this mirror piece and be off this mountain before anything _worse_ happens," I shot back, though I kept my voice low as well.

Fortunately enough, Yeto the yeti has a sense of humor. Instead of taking offense, he burst out laughing.

"If you no look for self, what _do_ you search, uh? Tell truth!"

"We're looking for a piece of a mirror," I said. "About this big... A shard, really, broken on both sides. Have you seen it?"

"...Uh. You look for mirror in such faraway place," he mused. Then laughed again. "You make good climb, and be lucky to meet me! I find shiny mirror piece not long ago! Maybe same mirror you look for?"

"Well, if we could see it, we would know. Can we?"

"Uh! You come to house and see!" he agreed. "I caught fish, can make you hot meal, at least!"

"Yes!" Link paused for a moment. "Uh... where _is_ you house?"

"Far away," Yeto replied. "You slide like me! Follow!"

He gave the tree a solid punch, and a trio of leaves snapped off, landing curved side down in the snow. He jumped on one and cheerfully slid away down the incline.

"This is going to end _so_ well," I grumbled.

"He's fast!" Link said in awe.

"Yes, fast enough that we're going to fall behind if we're not careful. Come on, we may as well learn how to fall face-first in the snow ourselves..."

For all my pessimism about the cold, snow-sliding really is quite fun. It's not quite the same as riding a horse, but it does require about that sort of balance and dexterity. Fortunately for us, while Yeto left us far behind, there was only the one trail to follow, and though there were many near misses and moments of sudden panic—jumping was an experience, I will say that much—we both reached the end in one piece.

The house towered up over us, and I whistled a little, for a moment forgetting the cold that stung my face.

"For a beast-man, he's got a pretty nice place," Midna said. "How'd he get it?"

"It's either an old noble manor house, or it used to be some sort of training grounds for soldiers," I said after a long minute. "Those stone walls are much too think to be anything else. As for how... If I had to guess I'd say that when it got too cold, everyone retreated to the south, further into Hyrule proper, so it was abandoned. And he's obviously not bothered by the cold, so he just moved on in. And speaking of moving in, we should, before we freeze further."

Besides, the prospect of a hot meal—and maybe a working fireplace—was much more ideal than freezing in the cold. In we went.


	18. Seventeen

Seventeen

It was not much warmer inside; a large hole in the roof allowed snow and wind, and the floor had been damaged or destroyed in chunks, revealing icy patches over stone. Parts of the stairs up to either wing of the house had fallen apart thanks to the weather, and everything carried a heavy lining of frost. If anything, it felt _colder_.

I felt more than saw Link droop beside me, and glanced at him sidelong; it was hard to tell with the cold, and how we were bundled literally up to our eyes in furs, but I was starting to suspect that the hero was _not_ as healthy as he claimed.

Fortunately for both of us, the room directly off the entryway was snug, and in good repair, and most importantly, it was _warm_. Or at least, warm in comparison to the rest of the house. We both would have headed right for the fire, if not for the small yeti before it. She appeared to be wrapped in a thick blanket of some sort, and our sudden appearance startled her.

"Who...?" she asked, sounding weary and weak. "Uh... sorry. I have sickness..."

Her cough was a dry one, almost brittle sounding; I winced in sympathy.

"Come closer, uh?"

The invitation was all Link needed; he headed straight for the fireplace, and the warmth it offered. I followed slowly, feeling a sense of unease about the situation that was hard to pin down.

Sitting, Yeta was right around Link's height; her eyes were fever bright, but her smile was warm, if shy. She was cute, really, and if there had been dolls of her made, I have no doubt that they would sell quickly to young children. Her voice, like her husband's, was accented, but unlike him, she did not boom her words. She was smaller, softer.

And when I got close enough, I realized the unease was caused not by her, but by the magic wrapped around her that bore distinct traces of Power... and one of the shards of the Mirror.

"You cute little humans," she said with a delighted smile. "Husband told me you come. You want look at mirror, uh? Husband found it, very pretty thing, but..."

"But?" I prompted.

"After mirror come, I get sick. And strange creatures appear outside, make courtyard not safe. We lock third floor bedroom, to keep safe, then put key in hidden spot. Here, you take map, I show you."

It wasn't so much a map as a comprehensive floor plan, making stairs, windows, and what each room in the manor house was _meant_ to be used for.

"Fever make head blurry, but I think... this room," she said, freeing one hand from inside her blanket to indicate which one. Then she quickly buried her face in the blanket to cough. "Husband no want me to get up... but if you bring key here, I take you to room."

I studied her carefully, then nodded.

"Link, are you warmed up yet?" I asked, glancing over at him with a faintly wry smile.

"No," he said, sounding a little pitiful.

He still had his hands outstretched to the fire, and now it was the heat from that which added a flush to what parts of his face I could see. Something about the way he was standing bothered me, but I couldn't quite tell what.

"Not used to cold, uh?" Yeta giggled, then coughed. "Husband make good soup in kitchen. You go have some, uh?"

"That's a good idea. Link, c'mon. We'll get a bite to eat, and then go find this key."

He groaned a little, but followed me as I headed into the kitchen, where Yeto stood next to a large stone cauldron of soup that bubbled over the fire. He glanced up immediately as we entered, and beamed at us.

"Ah! You," he boomed, pleased. "Yeta... not look good, uh? Not since mirror come. I make soup, so she get better! Fish from Zora village are most nutritious! You taste too!If you tired, it give you energy!"

It was hard to resist his enthusiasm, and it _was_ quite delicious smelling. So we obligingly did, and Link seemed much improved after his second bowl. I certainly felt quite a bit warmer for sitting so close to a steady kitchen fire, and enjoying hot food.

"So if we go out this door, it shouldn't be too hard to reach the room where the key is," I murmured, pointing to the place Yeta had indicated on the map. "Though I suspect the sooner we get the mirror shard out of here,the better, especially if it's warping things like this..."

"Why _is_ it doing that?" Minda queried softly from within Link's shadow.

"Because even broken, it's a powerful magical item," I replied. "Without the typical constraints on it that come from being _whole_ , it's leaking magical energy, which draws all sorts of things, even if they don't know entirely _why_ they're being drawn. It's why certain magical items get layered in shields, or are under constant supervision... Not," I added sardonically, "that there's many of those laying around these days."

Link snickered a little, and finished off the last of his soup.

We left Yeto mumbling to himself over the stew, and headed out through a chilly storage room, filled with boxes of wood and a few of metal. Some had been there long enough to be frozen to one another, and whatever they'd held was nothing more than chunks of ice.

"Where did he get the vegetables?" Link wondered as we worked on getting the half-frozen outer door to open.

"If I had to guess, there's probably a greenhouse around. Best bet is underground," I replied, bracing myself to shove the door open. "Heat stays better contained that way."

Working together, we managed to shove the door open, its hinges shedding ice, and then get it closed again. Back outside, Link quickly pulled up the muffling furs to cover most of his face, and I could hardly blame him. We'd thawed a bit with the warmth and food, and now the biting cold was even worse.

The uncovered walk we entered wasn't piled _high_ with snow, but that's probably because the walls were tall enough to block the worst of the wind. Blocking the way through, however, was a thick chunk of ice.

"Oh no," I said grimly. "We are _not_ doing this today. It is too cold, and I do _not_ like being here."

I heard more than saw Link take a cautious step back, which was probably for the best, as I called fire to my hand, then sent it streaming towards the ice. It melted with an angry hiss and cloud of steam, water dribbling down to puddle onto the frozen stone ground. Beyond the column was more ice, and small chucks of it that moved with a life of their own; mini-freezards. We had to skate past them to reach the frozen door at the end of the walk.

Freezards and mini-freezards are bizarre creatures of ice. I've never been entirely certain how they come about, outside of spontaneous creation, and I'm not quite certain that they are truly _alive_ in any sense of the word. Freezards icy breath can snap-freeze one in a second, though, and that's a quick and unpleasant way to die. Mini-freezards aren't as powerful, but a touch from one is a good way to get frostbite.

The room we found beyond appeared to have been storage for arms and armor, laying credence to the idea that this had been a training house for soldiers and knights at some point in the far past. Beyond _that_ was a room that was large enough to use for combat training... Granted, there was a huge _hole_ in the roof, which let in snow and ice, but at one time, it must have been a grand sort of place.

A smaller room beyond looked like a modest storage area, but before we could go try to force _that_ door, chunks of ice descended from the ceiling, and from them, humanoid figures appeared; chilfos.

Irritating is the proper word for _this_ manifestation of living ice; they stand about my height, and wield spears of the ice they were born from that are half again as tall as they are. And they had managed to catch us both by surprise, so Link was sent flying off in one direction, while I was sent off in the other.

Fortunately, they are also quite _fragile_. A solid blow shatters the spear, and it takes them a few moments to remake it. So the bomb Link rolled to their feet did the job of shattering them quite nice. And if it also had the bonus of blowing one of the frozen doors off its hinges, well, I wasn't inclined to scold, even though he looked rather embarrassed.

"This place is falling apart," he mumbled sheepishly, following me into the storeroom.

"Indeed. Here, help me go through these boxes, it has to be around here somewhere."

We spent twenty minutes in that room; the only thing of use we found was a ripe pumpkin that had clearly traveled all the way from Ordon.

"That," Midna said tartly as Link held it up in bemusement, "is not a key. I think she picked the wrong location, and we should go back and make her try again."

"Might as well bring the pumpkin with," I sighed a little. "Maybe Yeto can add it to his soup, and make it better."

Link nodded, and tucked the pumpkin under one arm, wobbling just a little. I paused at the door and gave him a scrutinizing look.

"Are you feeling okay, puppy?"

"Y-yeah," he smiled a bit sheepishly. "Just slipped is all."

"Hmmm..."

The feeling of something off had returned, but I let it pass for the moment; the sooner we were inside where it was _warm_ again, the better.

Luckily, we didn't have to go back outside; the second door led to the frozen storeroom, then straight back to the kitchen, where Yeto was continuing to mumble to himself. Abruptly, the yeti sniffed the air, then glanced down at Link in delight.

"You have pumpkin, uh? Give please!"

The pumpkin was practically dwarfed by Yeto's large hand, and Link handed it over gratefully—in getting through the storage space, we'd almost dropped it twice. It was dropped, whole, into the soup, and Yeto beamed.

"Give hour, then come taste!"

We both nodded, and quickly moved back into the warmth of the living room where Yeta remained curled by the fire.

"You find key, uh?" she asked as Link flopped onto the floor by the fire with a sigh of relief.

"Ah... no. We found a pumpkin."

She blinked.

"Pumpkin?" she echoed, surprised. "But why there?"

I just shrugged a little, and she frowned.

"No good, uh...where I leave it?"

She went quiet in thought, and I decided to drop down into a sitting position with Link; the cold was unpleasant, and draining, and sitting near to the fire was comforting. We were both starting to doze when Yeta spoke up.

"I see map?"

I handed it over again, and she frowned at it, then pointed to a room directly under the tower.

"I think maybe _this_ room, uh. If go out that door," and she nodded at the outside door, "you find courtyard. Be careful, uh?"

"Right... thank you..."

I hoped that it _would_ be there, because if this game of 'hunt through the mansion' kept going,I was going to lose my temper. I turned to nudge Link, then frowned and crouched to get a better look at him in the flickering firelight. He looked back, gray-blue eyes almost _too_ bright for the room. Not tear-bright either.

"...are you _sure_ you're feeling all right?" I asked.

"Uh... yeah?" he seemed a bit bewildered by the question.

"You look feverish."

He shook his head after a moment.

"I'm okay. Nice and warm now," he replied, sounding cheerful. "Ready to go back out there and suffer in the cold."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I snickered a little.

"All right, let's go."

The courtyard was in deep snow, and a fully formed Freezard guarded the door under the tower. A small cannon could be aimed at the door and the ice monster, but there was no sign of any cannonballs. White wolfos jumped from the snow at the sight of us, and tried to drive us into the deep drifts. Link killed one, I killed another, but there was plainly a den of them under the snow, because they just kept _coming_.

"Link, if you can hold them off, I can get us past the ice blockade. All right?"

My back was to him, so I felt more than saw his nod; if I had seen how tired he was, we would have retreated back into the sitting room immediately, but he is a stubborn boy...

He stepped away from me slightly to take a better guarding position, which I saw out of the corner of my eye before I turned my focus inwards. The Freezard was thicker than the ice wall, and also alive to some degree; it would continue to try and re-freeze itself if I didn't hit it hard and fast enough.

Now Snowpeak is technically part of Lanayru's purview. But Lanayru is a spirit of water, and what I needed at that moment was a boost of fire. So I had to stretch, to reach past Lanayru to find Eldin.

 _Eldin._

 _My mother, I hear. What do you require?_

 _Fire._

I have had Din's Fire for centuries. In truth, I have no need for the crystal, but I keep it for sentiment's sake, and also because sometimes, having a fire focus helps. It certainly did here; Eldin passed me the energy of molten life, deep beneath the earth, and I in turn, twisted it to a form I could use against the Freezard.

I have to say, vaporizing the creature was intensely satisfying, and there was even a temporary bloom of warmth from the power of the spell. I turned, prepared to see a stunned Link, ready to tease him for having a look of awe.

What I saw was blood on the snow, and Link clutching his shield arm to his chest as a wolfos jumped for him.

I will not lie, for a second, my heart stopped, and my breath as well. But then reflexes took over, and I launched myself at the wolfos, palming a throwing dagger; we collided, and the dagger plunged into the side of the wolfos, making the creature howl in pain.

The fire had scared the rest off, and this one bled out onto the snow, not that I stayed to watch; I darted back to Link, and urged him up, onto his feet, and we headed back for the warmth of the sitting room. The sword wouldn't be hard to find when I went back out, but for the moment is wasn't as important as the injured hero.

"Oh!" Yeta jumped about a foot as we came in. "You find key?"

"No, we didn't even get into the room. Link's hurt."

He didn't protest when I had him sit by the fire, nor when I removed the furs to get a better look at his arm.

"What happened?"

"I...I'm not sure," he hissed a little as I pulled his arm carefully straight to make sure nothing was broken. "I... for second my brain went kind of fuzzy, and then the next thing I knew there were teeth on my arm, and the sword was..."

Link shook his head a little, but I couldn't tell if he was trying to clear it, or just feeling upset because he'd lost his weapon.

The wounds were deep, and unpleasant looking; already they had ice frosting around his skin, though the heat of the fire seemed to help deal with that. After a moment I sat back on my heels and heaved a sigh.

"Okay. It's okay, I can heal this," I said. "But you're not being entirely honest with me, are you?"

Link looked down at the grate, a hangdog expression on his face.

"Thought so. Look, you stay here with Yeta; keep her company and tell her about some of what you've been through," I murmured. "If Yeto comes in with more soup, try and eat some. Once we're out of here, we can stop for a day or two and find out what's really wrong. Okay?"

"...sorry," he mumbled.

"Hush, puppy. Shit happens. Now hold still."

I hummed very softly, concentrating rather fiercely on the magic. Yes, it was only his arm, and it wasn't so hard to heal—the most irksome part was working out the frozen saliva of the wolfos—but I was still kicking myself for carelessness. While I can certainly _carry_ the Master Sword, I can't wield it. My one attempt at that had left me comatose for a good two years from the refutation, and I had no desire to try again.

The fact that he was plainly coming down with something, that he must have caught it at the prison, that was on me. I forget, so often, that the dead breed disease, even long after their deaths. Fungus and bacteria don't _bother_ me, my body purifies it without even trying. But for other people, a place like the prison, if you're going to spend a lot of time there, need a mask at the very least.

Whatever it was,it hadn't had a lot of time to work; either Link's wolf form was hardier than his human one, or the cold was keeping it at bay... but either way, this was only a temporary fix, and he was going to need to actually sit down and deal with it a bit so I could figure out what it _was_ , and how to help him get through it.

When his arm was healed, I bundled him back up into the fur, and moved one of the cushions Yeta wasn't using over for him to lay on.

"I'm going to leave him here with you, okay?" I said to Yeta as I headed for the door. "Be right back."

The blue hilt of the Master Sword against the white snow is impossible to miss, so I brought that back inside first, before stepping out into the cold a third time, and heading for the room Yeta had indicated on her map. The short hallway was filled with standing suits of armor, more cannons, and some weaponry that was clearly ceremonial.

When the lizard in armor attempted to come after me, I, being short on patience, simply turned around and fried him with a column of fire. Not in the mood described my sentiments at that moment very well, and the fire worked well enough that I was able to enter the next room without fuss.

More armor, and storage crates and boxes met me in the next room; the ice wall was swiftly melted into nothingness, which had an added bonus of warming up the room, even if it was only temporary. Most of what was in the boxes wasn't useful; iron, frozen and brittle shafts of wood, bow strings, arrows... and large round of Ordonian cheese.

"Really?" I demanded of no one in particular.

"What, food _again?_ "

I jumped about a foot as Midna appeared from _my_ shadow for once. She snickered a little at my expense, then heaved a sigh at the food.

"I thought she didn't sound to sure of herself," the twili continued, her own voice somewhere between irritable and resigned. "Back to the start, huh?"

"...no."

She blinked at me.

"I'm done letting this place jerk me around," I growled, officially out of patience. "That Freezard up there blocking the way is going to get _melted_ , and I am going to pick that stupid lock."

"What about the cheese?"

I sighed a little, and tamped down on some of my temper.

"I'll bring the cheese to Yeto for the soup. Also, when were you going to tell me you'd decided to follow me instead of Link?"

"...oh, right about now~"

She grinned and dove back into my shadow as I waved a fist mock-threateningly. Still, it was heartening to have some company.

Yeto received the cheese with glee, and insisted I have some. Nothing loathe, since I was feeling more than half-frozen, I sat in the kitchen and tasted it, letting it thaw my temper and my insides both. With the addition of the pumpkin and the cheese,it really was quite good, and I certainly felt more energetic after eating some.

Instead of going back through the sitting room, I returned to the courtyard though the storeroom, and climbed up the wall, seeking finger and toe-holds with the ease of long practice; it helped that the wall itself was starting to crumble with the constant cold, and soon enough I was perched on what had once been a floor for a second hallway, across from the Freezard that blocked the way up to the tower bedroom.

Carefully, I climbed across the broken wall until I was _just_ out of range of the icy breath before I called on Eldin's strength again; the ice melted away in runnels down the stone walls, and on I went. The lock on the bedroom door was mostly only difficult because of how damned _cold_ the place was; trying to pick a normal lock can be difficult, but a frozen one is a special sort of pain in the ass. If not for the fact that it was their bedroom, and it wasn't _Yeta's_ fault she was sick, I would have blown the door off its hinges.

I did get it eventually, just as the sun was beginning to set. You know,as if it hadn't been cold _enough_ on the mountain. The door opened with a creak, revealing a dark, snug room. On my right was a large canopy bead on a slightly raised dais, on my left,a large fireplace that was dark and cold; they clearly hadn't been here in at least two, maybe three days. The floor held a carpet of red with a gold snowflake pattern woken into it... it was a nice carpet, I admit.

Directly across from me, hanging almost innocently on the wall, was the mirror shard. I stomped across to it, and felt it prepare a swamp of spells in response to my aggression. I promptly slapped a strong protective barrier around it, and the engravings shone silver as the power was reflected back in.

"None of that nonsense," I said grimly. "You are _done_ causing trouble here. Release the hold you have on the yeti, and these grounds, and get back to where you belong!"

And I slapped my hand onto the surface of the mirror shard, pushing pure light through it to clear out the miasma it had built up from being broken by Power, and from sitting atop that prison for so long. It fought, in a mindless sort of manner, like anything tainted by Power fights. But under the power, the shard of the mirror was _my_ work, _my_ magic.

And in the end, it responded to my will, and shone briefly with a clear silver light before it vanished.

"Where'd it go?!" Midna yelped.

"Back... to the Mirror Chamber," I said, sagging against the wall as I panted for breath. "Where it belongs..."

I flopped into a sitting position, and wiped the sweat from my face; cold room or not, that had taken a lot out of me, and I was going to need a few minutes to recover.

"...are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll be fine. I just need to sit for a couple of minutes..."

"Is the girl going to be okay?"

"Who, Yeta? Yes, with the mirror shard gone now, she should be fine, and whatever passes for normal around here should return."

"That's a relief..." Midna sighed a little. "Now if only the other two shards are this easy."

"Hah! Yeah, that'd be nice. I doubt it'll happen, but it would be very nice."

"Do you know what's wrong with Link?"

"No... But I'm pretty sure I know where he got it from. We might have to take a few days in the Temple of Time before I can really help him with it... Injuries I'm used to. Illnesses, not so much."

Midna nodded a little, her visible eye showing concern.

"But I _can_ work it out. He just... might have to put up with the symptoms for a couple of days while I figure out the best treatment. The safest place to do that is one relatively close to a Light Spirit, and one that's peaceful. The Temple of Time fits both those requirements. And on that note," I pushed myself to my feet, shivering under the furs, "let's get moving again."


	19. Eighteen

Eighteen

Of all the things I was expecting, actually meeting Yeta halfway up the walk to their room as I was coming down was not one of them.

"I have some of husband's soup, feel much better," she said brightly. "Boy sleep, so I come make sure you safe. See mirror already?"

"I did, thank you. It was what I was looking for, actually, so..."

"Aw. Sad to see pretty go, but if more use for you, you take," she nodded.

"If you'd like, I can make you a mirror and bring it back another time. It won't be the same was the shard you found, but..."

She considered this as we headed back down.

"I ask husband," she said finally. "He find mirror piece first."

"Sure. Go ahead. I'll check on Link."

Already the air seemed marginally warmer—for any definition of warmer—and Yeta certainly looked better. She no longer had the miasma of magic twisted around her, and I knew once the full effects wore off, she would be back to her old self, whatever that self was. While I wasn't looking _forward_ to the idea of having to come back and deliver a mirror, it really did seem only fair.

Link was indeed dozing by the fire still, and the feverish flush was not _just_ from the heat of it. But he jolted awake when I lightly shook his shoulder, reaching first for a weapon before he recognized me. I must admit, even with the vague threat of being attacked, I was pleased; his reflexes were sharp, even while he was suffering from some form of sepsis.

"Ah..."

"It's fine," I said, before he could apologize. "We're all done here. Ready to go back south where it's somewhat warmer than this?"

He grinned a little, and nodded, then carefully got to his feet. He was a _bit_ wobbly, but the nap appeared to have done him some good. Either that, or his pride was helping him to stay upright. I led him into the kitchen, where Yeta was talking with Yeto, and grabbed us both a bowl of stew each; I wanted the energy, and if it had helped Yeta, it would help Link.

Link ate with a sort of weary single-mindedness that was worrying; not like he was hungry, but like he was doing to just because I'd given him the bowl.

"No need new mirror," Yeto boomed, making us both jump. "Thank for offer, uh!"

"Oh, ah, sure... Thanks for showing us the way here," I said after a startled minute.

He beamed, and the pair of yeti left the warm kitchen to us. Nothing loathe, I scooped up a few bottles worth of soup—reheating it later would be easy enough, and it _was_ good—then helped Link to stand up again.

"Midna, you can warp us from here, can't you?"

"Well, yes, since there's no one here, but where are we going? I can't get us to the grove..."

"You don't have to," I said with a wry smile. "Once we're within range, _I_ can get us to the grove. But we need to visit a Spirit Spring first. Link, how do you feel about going back to Ordon for a bit?"

He blinked, and glanced up at me; his eyes were a bit unfocused, but after a moment he blinked again and nodded a little.

"I'd like that..."

"All right. Then let's go to Ordona's spring first, and we'll take a couple of days off."

Either I was getting used to the sensation, or Midna was getting better at it, but it was less stifling, and it even seemed to be faster. We dropped lightly at the edge of the spring, and the warmth of early summer dawn blossomed around us. It might not have been the heat of the desert, but it was comfortably warm enough that I pulled off the extra furs, tucking them away for future use, then helped Link out of his.

"You have a house around here, right?" I asked.

"Yeah..."

"Okay. First off, you should probably strip out of that," and I gestured to the green tunic, "all of it, and leave it here to soak in the spring. Ordona's waters will purify whatever's still clinging to your clothes, which will prevent a relapse."

"S-strip?" he squeaked.

I snickered at his expression. Embarrassed doesn't really describe it... I suppose mortified would be more accurate. Whether it was the matter-of-fact way I said it, or the implications, either way, he did not seem to like the idea.

"Yes. Strip. Relax, puppy, I don't mean for you to walk around in the buff, but if you remain in clothes that are covered in dust from the prison, you're not going to get any better. You're also going to need to bathe in these waters. You have spare clothing at your house, right? Ordonian clothing?"

Flushed to the tips of his ears, he nodded.

"I'll grab a set of clothes for you from that, and you can change into them when you're done. After which you should go home and get to bed."

"Wh... what about you?"

"No doubt I've got some prison muck on me too, so I am going to wade into the spring and soak myself before I get your clothes, and then I'll go down to Faron's spring and do everything I just told you to do; strip, bathe, soak," I said frankly. "You're going to have to put up with the symptoms for a few days, I think, until I can figure out a way to help. Like I told Midna, I can do injuries, but disease is trickier. Sound all right?"

"...do I have to strip while you're here?" he asked plaintively.

Despite myself, I burst out laughing, and waded into the spring, heading for the short waterfall.

"If it makes you feel more comfortable, you can wait until after I come back with your clothes, puppy," I said with a grin. "A few more minutes shouldn't make that much of a difference anyways."

He let out a sigh of relief that made me laugh again, even as I ducked under the water and let it soak me through.

"Where _is_ your house?" I asked once I'd returned to shore, dripping wet and actually feeling quite comfortable.

"Just up the path," he gestured slightly. "It's the first house in the clearing before you get to the village."

"Right. Be back in a couple minutes, then."

I admit, I was still snickering as I headed towards his house; his sheer embarrassment about being nude was really quite entertaining. I admit, I understand why certain social taboos exist, but really, there is nothing embarrassing about the human form.

His house was a nice one, and gave me a brief jolt of nostalgia; for a second, I saw a large, hollowed out tree, with a ladder leading to the one room that had once been... And then I shook myself out of it, and climbed the ladder up tot he really quite nice house. Fortunately, though dusty, everything inside was laid out in an easy to find fashion, and it wasn't hard to get his spare set of Ordonian clothing. I dropped them at Ordona's spring, then headed off towards Faron wood after reminding Link that _everything_ he was currently in needed to soak.

The woods were welcoming enough, especially as the sun continued to rise. The trees tempered the warmth, and the sounds of life were all around; birds sang high overhead, the leaves of bushes rustled and twigs rattled as forest beasts searched for food.

Faron's spring was especially peaceful, and even better, there was not a soul in sight. I stripped out of the clothes and pulled out everything I could think of that would have come in contact with me during or immediately after we'd left the prison, and left it in the spring to soak. To wash myself, I slipped on my Zora tunic, and dove into the deep pool to the side that was also fed by spring water; sinking to the bottom, I sighed in abject relief at the comfort the water brought me.

Fire remains my element, but water brings me a relaxation that cannot be compared.

 _Ordona, how is he doing?_ I asked

 _My mother, he is laying face up in the shallows, and I think he has fallen asleep..._

I snorted out a cloud of amused bubbles.

 _It's been something of a long night. Physically?_

 _The water cools the fever that continues to try and build. His legs will hold him, but only for short durations. If not treated quickly, he may be ill for some time, my mother._

 _Hopefully not,_ I replied.

Still, this was not really a time to be lazing about.

 _Ordona, wake him and tell him to dress and get to his house,_ I said, propelling myself to the surface. _Let him know I'll be there shortly._

 _My mother, I shall._

 _Faron, it the pack still safe?_

 _My mother, it is,_ the forest spirit replied. _It remains where you left it._

 _Good_.

I climbed out of the pool, then up the two waterfalls to the top of the spring where—at least two decades ago, give or take—I had stashed an emergency bundle of clothing and supplies.

Paranoia occasionally leads to useful things like this.

I wrung the water out of my hair as best I could before Tossing on the clothes, and left it loose so that it would dry faster. True, it also tangles worse, but wet hair is only tolerable when it's _short_ wet hair. Tangles are easy enough to fix.

Link had managed to get to his house by the time I joined him, but the ladder was plainly not his best friend, if him laying on the ground looking relatively dazed was any indication. I could hear a muffled sound that I'm _fairly_ sure was Midna trying not to laugh at his misfortune, sighed, and went to help him up.

"It seems a lot taller from down here," he mumbled.

"That's because you're sick, puppy. Come on. One hand at a time, and we'll get you up."

I have to say, the Ordonian clothes suit him as much as the familiar green tunic does. He seems much younger in them...

Getting him up the ladder did take some work; plainly now that he was in a more temperate climate, whatever had hit him was hitting harder.

Instead of making him climb two more ladders to reach his bed, I moved the somewhat dusty pallet to the floor, and had him lay down on it, then laid a cloth soaking in water from the spring over his forehead.

"You rest," I told him sternly. "If you get hungry, let me know."

"...you look really pretty with your hair down," he mumbled.

I blinked, snorted a little, and pushed him down onto the pallet.

" _Rest_."

He nodded meekly, and closed his eyes, quickly dropping into slumber. I sighed, spared a moment to wonder if it was safe for _me_ to take a nap, then went about checking the supplies that were in my emergency stash. It rather was a pity there weren't any fairies to be found these days, save for a rare,lucky instance; one of those could have handled _anything_.

But since there weren't, we had to do things the normal way. For me, this meant observing his symptoms while going through the various herbs and berries I had on hand, and trying to match what I had with what I saw. Keeping him comfortable was a careful balancing act of water and blankets; fortunately for me, I had an extra pair of hands courtesy of Midna.

Which was actually _quite_ useful, since it meant I could let her watch him while I went out to gather what all I _didn't_ have on hand.

Everything that was _not_ water soluble I left in the springs for that first day, and then hung out to dry on various branches and the like over the next two days. Link remained mostly dozy for those three days, his fever not rising _too_ much beyond what his normal body temperature was, willing to eat and could reasonably make his way to his outdoor privy without help.

It was the fourth day when things started getting worse at a rapid pace. Getting him to wake up took more effort than typical, and he didn't want to eat at all. It took concentrated effort to convince him, and he went back to sleep almost immediately. His fever, mostly in check, began to climb within a few hours.

"What do we do?" Midna asked anxiously as she wiped the sweat from his face and place a new, cool cloth on his forehead.

"He's strong, and healthy," I said quietly. "We simply have to wait this out."

"Can't we... take him somewhere? You wanted to go to the grove, right?"

I sighed a little.

"Yes. If I thought it was a good idea to move him, I'd be insisting on it right now. But I'm not so sure it is..."

"But what if he gets worse?!"

"If he gets worse, to the point of where his actual life is threatened, we'll make the jump," I replied firmly. "But until then, it might actually be safest for him to work it out on his own."

"...why?"

"Because if he has to go back in the future, after everything is settled, at least it'll be one less thing that can affect him there."

It sounded heartless. It _felt_ heartless. But it was also a practical precaution.

A person that gets healed from an injury is spared the painful process of having their body rebuild what was damaged or broken. They may still have lingering aches and pains, and weather bones, but on a whole, healing an injury can be considered something of a useful cheat.

Not so much when it comes to illness. What the body produces to _fight_ that illness, magic cannot replicate. I wanted him to have the chance of fighting it off, if he ever had to go through again in the future, whatever was in his system.

I couldn't, cannot, rescue him from everything. And it's hard knowing when I shouldn't interfere; I don't like seeing Hero or Princess in pain and knowing that _I can fix it_ , but not allowing myself to do so until the situation becomes dire enough... Making that choice, that judgment call, often leaves observers wondering just how cold and unfeeling I truly am.

I did what I could, using water from the spirit's spring, and plants that were purified by contact with it. Teas and pastes to soothe the racking cough he developed and ease his breathing; potions given in careful sips that were not necessarily _pleasant_ , but would help to bolster his system. I even reheated the bottles of soup I took from Yeto's pot on Snowpeak, hoping that he was, in fact, right about how much it would help. And to help his body burn out the illness, I carefully draped him in the furs that had dried. I hoped that he might sweat some of it out, and soon, his fever would break.

The following day was when the hallucinations began; he didn't seem to really see either of us, and walked in old memories of his current life. He still responded to an authoritative voice, if nothing else, and I was able to get him to drink down the medicines, though he heavily protested the flavor. He didn't even seem to like the soup, which struck a spark of amusement; it was such a childlike reaction that I couldn't feel insulted.

At one point, he took me for his mother, and begged me to read him a story in a voice so young that I would have sworn he was a small toddler like Malo, instead of a young man almost full grown. Disconcerting put it _mildly._

Day six held no improvements; he still didn't recognize either of us, but chattered as though he was talking to friends and family. He protested the weight of the blankets and furs, the taste of the medicines, teas, and again the soup. He tried to get up several times, only to almost fall repeatedly, but he wanted no help.

I helped anyways, and Midna did what she could to let me catch brief naps. May her gods bless her, she did more than I had asked; when she saw we were running out of spring water, she got it herself, and even grabbed a handful of branches from a fruit bush that I used to flavor the tea. She kept on him constantly, changing the cloth that was laid over his forehead to try and tame the fever, even helping to spread the plaster over his chest to ease his breathing.

"How can you stand it?" she asked that night, as I carefully poured another batch of medicine into a jar to cool. "Waiting and watching like this... it seems cruel."

"It is cruel, and I know it's cruel," I said grimly. "I never said I _liked_ it. I don't. I _hate_ knowing that he's sick, and that if I brought him to the right place and cast the right spell, I could fix it. I hate having to make the decision of how much is too much, or not enough. I don't _want_ him to suffer."

I set the small kettle down, then sat on the lone chair.

"But I can't always protect him. Something like this could make him stronger in the end, even if it's hell now. If he can get through on his own strength, I owe him the chance to try... and if he can't, _then_ I can do something about it. I won't let him die..."

She laid a small hand on my shoulder, and I blinked back tears.

"I'm fine," I sighed a little. "I'm just tired, and worried. He's a good kid."

"You really care about him, huh?"

My smile was fleeting, and I knew it was bitter.

"Always." After a moment I gave my head a sharp shake and got to my feet again. "Right. Enough of this. Back to work."

Care is not, and never has been, the correct word. Like Zelda, I love Link. But also like Zelda, rare is the chance where I can _be_ with Link. I do not age. I cannot die. What sort of life could we then have?

Enough maudlin.

Day seven saw him holding steady in that same pattern, but that night his fever spiked so abruptly that Midna woke me; Link was shuddering under his pile of blankets. I was awake enough to know better than to try and hold him down, and instead stripped the blankets off; it was plain that their extra weight and heat was not helping in the slightest.

The seizure halted after only a few minutes, with him settling back in a panting, sweat-drenched unconsciousness. Quietly, I allowed a sigh of relief to escape, then leaned forward.

"What _was_ that?" Midna demanded.

"Sometimes when a fever runs too long, too high, a body will seize up," I replied, reaching out with a hand that glowed golden with the spell I needed to tell me how bad this really was. "Give me a moment..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her scowling; it wasn't hard to guess that she resented my calm reaction, or that she blamed me for him being ill. No doubt she also blamed herself for asking him to come with us; Nayru knew I certainly did.

What the spell gave me wasn't precisely welcome news; healthy though Link was, he was losing the fight. And that could not be allowed to happen; Ganondorf _could not_ be allowed to have control of the palace, Zant _could not_ be allowed to have control over the Twili realm.

"Midna, you can travel through _any_ shadow, right?"

"Y-yes?"

"Good. You're going to need to. I don't think my teleportation variant would be good for you, even bolstered by Zelda's soul."

"So we're going then?"she asked, visible eye gleaming.

"Yes. Or at least, Link and I will. The magic I'm going to use will be very similar to what you suffered when place before Lanayru's light," I cautioned. "I'd prefer it if you waited here, but if you decide to follow, I'd _heavily_ recommend taking shelter outside the temple itself. Just because you're bolstered by Zelda's soul doesn't mean you should take risks."

"He's right," she said after a minute, "you _are_ a nice person."

I rolled my eyes, and carefully moved Link so that he was sprawled across my lap, head tucked against my shoulder.

"Sorry about this puppy," I murmured, pulling out the Ocarina.

The Prelude of Light is the only teleportation spell that works now; all the other teleportation nodes were destroyed or disappeared a long time ago. It was also the gentlest, and within moments we were whisked into a warm summer night, and dropped on the soft grass and moss that coated the floor of the derelict temple.

Carefully, I settled Link on the ground, and tried to not feel too guilty about the fact that now he was shivering, a direct response to the fever that was tricking his body.

"Just hang on puppy," I murmured. "You'll feel better soon, okay?"

As if he heard me, he made a faint sound of either acknowledgment or complaint, and he _did_ seem to try and settle. I got to my feet, and centered myself, pushing all emotions aside save for the blaze that was pure, stubborn determination.

It's not a healing spell in the conventional sense, but the Song of Healing is sort of an all-purpose fix-it song. It's helped the dying, the dead, poes, and most of all, the living. No matter what challenge I put to it, channeled through those simple notes, a backwards, softer rendition of Saria's Song, the magic does what it must.

So I closed my eyes, and went to work.

The sacred power of the Temple of Time is, and always has been, that of Light. Light filtering from the Templeof Light, which even now houses the Chamber of Sages, though all the sages have long since passed on. Even old Rauru is there only in spirit, a long departed memory of a kind man who waited patiently throughout the ages for the one who would replace him.

I still cannot take up those duties, though I would dearly love to.

I digress.

Though the music, through me, the magic was channeled; I walked a slow, steady circle around Link, leaving a trail of soft white light in my wake. Once the circle was complete, the light moved inward, and changed to a golden hue. It seeped into every piece of him, and where it touched, it darkened, showing the illness. Soon enough, it had him sheathed in a cocoon of golden-black fire that, as the night faded away into a soft dawn, slowly turned to a golden-white.

When the first rays of sunlight poured down into the temple, they joined the magic already in place; the air that had begun to warm with the kiss of summer's heat became abruptly as hot as if we were back in the desert. Threads that had stubbornly remained black, no matter the magic, crisped like they were over a fire, and turned to dust one by one.

It was late afternoon by the time the cocoon had shifted to a pure golden white, and the magic began draining away. The temperature returned to normal, and little by little, the light faded back to what was natural.

The moment the last of the magic left him, Link yawned, and rolled onto his side, curling up for a more natural sleep. Relieved, I let the song fade, and slowly sank to my knees, trying to stifle my own exhaustion. Whatever it had been, it was _nasty_ , and I did not want to encounter it again.

"...you look half-dead," Midna said frankly, popping up from a nearby shadow.

"Then I look... better than I feel," I croaked. My throat was dry from continued playing. "...let him... sleep until he wakes...on his own... He'll be fine now."

My balance failed me then, and I ended up on my side, still cradling the Ocarina in my hands as the effort of casting and channeling caught up to me all at once. I could no more have stopped myself from passing out any more than I had been able to prevent Link from getting sick in the first place.

The darkness was welcoming, warm, and soft. I succumbed to it without further fight.


	20. Nineteen

Nineteen

I slept for two days straight, due in no small part to channeling that much magic in an effort to clear out Link's infection. The other reason, of course, was just sheer exhaustion; while I can—and have—sustain myself on magic alone, I tend to try and live as normal a life as I can. Sleeping and eating on a regular schedule helps remind me that while I may be immortal, I am still a person.

When I woke, it was a slower process than normal. Sound came back first, the sleepy twittering of birds in the canopy overhead was soothing and relaxing, really. The rustle of wind through the trees, and over my face brought the scents of the forest to my nose. I was comfortably warm under the weight of my blanket, though I was having trouble remembering just when I'd climbed into my bedroll, and my hands were still curled around the Ocarina of Time.

I blinked my eyes open, and slowly unwrapped my hands from the magical item; I was stiff and sore, having been in the same position since I'd collapsed. At my back, Link made a sound of protest, and I blinked, twisting around with care to see that he'd snuggled himself up with me, back to back.

"You're _finally_ awake!" Midna said, her tone of voice somewhere between relieved and annoyed. "We though you'd sleep forever!"

"It certainly _feels_ like I have," I said with a grimace, wincing as things popped and creaked as I slowly sat up. "How long was I out?"

"Two days. Link woke up a couple hours after you passed out, and he's been worrying ever since. What did you _do_?"

"Long story short? Purification. It's a complicated spell, even woven through the music... ack!"

Trying to get up provoked mixed results; my balance was not precisely _shot_ , but I was nowhere near as... I suppose graceful is the right descriptor. I wasn't anywhere near my typical sort of grace. So naturally, I almost fell over.

Midna snickered.

"Yes yes, laugh it up," I grumbled half-heartedly, than took another glance around. "I see you brought our gear. Thanks."

"It was Link's idea. Once _he_ could walk without falling over, he insisted on getting it, so that we'd be ready for when you woke up and wanted to go," she grinned. "Though judging by the look of you, that'll be a bit, huh?~"

"Let me work out the kinks, and get some food, and I should be fine," I huffed a little.

Sunlight spilled over the broken temple wall, and fell in patches through the clearing; it felt, for a moment, like being wrapped in a blanket that had been hung near the fire, and I felt tension ease fractionally. Not enough to make getting up _easy_ , but enough so that it didn't hurt quite as much.

I started stretching, slowly and with great care; my body responded sluggishly, reminding me with every motion that I had been unconscious and immobile, and it didn't appreciate that I was now moving.

Link woke up properly about halfway through the slow stretches, and I'm fairly sure that only the fact that I was Doing Something kept him from trying to give me a very enthusiastic hug.

"You're okay!"

"Mmhm. Just a reaction to using so much energy," I replied. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good," he replied, bouncing to his feet as if proving that point. "I even saw the golden wolf again, and he showed me new moves!"

"That's good," I nodded a little. "At least you won't be totally helpless after a week of being more or less bedridden."

The put out look he gave me had Midna laughing, and despite myself I had to chuckle a little too.

"Give me a few hours, and I should be ready to move out," I said, stretching up and feeling several things pop back into place. "Nk... Big spells always take some recovery."

"Did you do it all yourself?" he asked, wide-eyed even as he fetched a long stick and started doing his own stretches.

"Mmhm. Which is why it hit me so hard," I admitted. "I should have tapped the spirits, but I got involved in the spell before it occurred to me, and once a working has begun, they can only interfere with invitation. I had to keep my focus locked on the spell, so I couldn't invite them in."

"It was pretty impressive anyways," Midna opined, lounging on a nearby rock. "That skull kid of yours came tumbling in at some point to see what was going on; he seemed somewhere between impressed and frightened."

"Well, it _is_ a lot of power to move through a body," I replied, carefully bending over backwards, then flowing into a handstand. It didn't last too long; I had to drop my feet before I fell on my head, and even so, I felt something twinge unpleasantly. "Ow. Anyways, he's the forest guardian, so naturally he'd come to make sure I'm not something setting up to invade or whatever. He didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

"No, I stayed in the shadows, he didn't even see me. He watched for a while though..."

"He was probably worrying," I said dryly, picking myself back up. "We're old friends."

"Friends?" Link was surprised enough to pause in his solo training.

"Mmhm. When I moved the Temple of Time here, to make sure that no one could reach it without being... worthy, I suppose, the first thing I needed was someone to watch over the place. The Hero of Time had made friends with a Skull Child who'd lived in the lands of Termina, and eventually, he found his way to Hyrule. Since he seemed to have a stronger grip on who and what he was, and a desire to remain, I asked him if he'd guard this forest for me. He agreed, and he's been helping to protect it ever since. He's kind of a flighty thing, but he doesn't mean too much harm."

Midna made a faint noise of disbelief, and Link's expression suggested he was siding with her.

"Key words there being 'too much harm,'" I added dryly. "He's the forest _guardian_ , so naturally he's got to make sure that whoever comes in is worthy of actually being here. Not many folk are, and it's safer this way. If the location of the Temple of Time, even in ruins, became common knowledge again, it opens the door to all sorts of bad things."

"Worse than what's already happening?" Midna asked, a little sardonically.

"Much."

This surprised her enough that she fell silent contemplatively. I eased through the last of my stretches, rolling my joints one at a time, then sighed a little. Link paused again in his practice, and there was the air of an eager puppy about him.

"...yes, okay, if it'll make you feel better," I said wryly.

The stick was dropped, and while he didn't _plow_ into me, he was not slow about giving me the relieved hug. I just loosely draped my arms around him in return, and even let myself have a moment of pretense, laying my cheek briefly on his mop of golden-brown hair.

Only a moment, however. Because he already _had_ someone to whom his heart was, if not pledged, than at least more than lightly promised. Perhaps it is selfish of me, to hold myself so apart while knowing they—Link and Zelda—want to be close, but I also wish to spare all of us the pain that would come with the inevitable parting. It's hard enough being friends...

Tch. Too personal, Raiha.

Breakfast was a mostly calm and quiet affair; Link set it up while I went back to stretching, this time a little faster; I didn't want to delay us any longer, and I could feel the faint scratching of a mirror shard, like... like a piece of straw stuck in the weave of a shirt. The sort of thing that only gets _worse_ when you know it's there, and can't do anything about it.

"So... Raiha?" Midna said as we cleaned up from breakfast.

"Yeah?"

"You think the mirror shard really is here?"

"Mmhm. It's... not _here_ , here," I replied after a moment. "Not physically here in this clearing, or anywhere close by. But I think I know where it is, and given a chance, I can probably track it down."

"It's.. here but it's not?" Link asked, confused.

"Yes."

"...that's _confusing_ ," Midna complained.

I grinned a little, and picked up my sword, carefully rolling through a series of flashy, useless moves.

"That's magic for you." I carefully exaggerated my moves for a moment, feeling Midna's glare. Really, it is a bit fun to tweak my friends, if somewhat unkind. "It's also this place. There is... this place, and then there's something else."

"Are we going to get to see this 'something else'?" she asked pointedly.

"Yes. In a little bit."

Midna made a face at me, but didn't press further.

From the flashy, useless moves, I moved into my usual practice set, though I only went about half my usual speed, trying to judge myself as though I was an impartial observer. I _wanted_ to move on right then and there, but I also didn't want Link to be unduly concerned about me. It was almost noon when I decided I was moving fluidly enough to respond to threats at my usual level, and let myself stop.

"Lunch first. Then I'll show you something that hasn't been seen in centuries."

"Like this place?" Midna quipped.

"Oh yes," and I smiled just slightly.

The suspicious look she gave me almost had me snickering. While I had never contemplated the idea of sharing the _true_ nature of the Temple before now, the idea of it was making me rather giddy.

Let me preface this; I love the Temple of Time. It is the only place where I can stand, and feel the weight of time that is greater than me, older than me, and feel young and not so alone in comparison. The ancient grove the temple has become still carries the weight of ages, but it is the connection to the Sacred Realm, and the _true_ temple, trapped within time, that reminds me of everything that is yet to come, that yet can _be_ with just a bit of hard work and effort.

It is, in and of itself, home for me.

And the idea of sharing the secret with two very good friends, of seeing their reactions, well...It was exciting, in a way that nothing had been for a good long while. A good sort of excitement, not the grim sort of anticipation that plagued me from being able to figure, in the nebulous sense, what was going to happen next.

The broken stairs were not the easiest to clamber up, but they provided many finger and toeholds for doing just that, even if we _did_ end up with dirt and gravel down shirts and in hair. Midna, when we reached the top, was giving the door a dubious look.

"I don't see how _this_ can lead us anywhere," she said pointedly. "It's just a door!"

"Ah, but it's not _just_ a door," I said, feeling the enigmatic smile cross my face again. "This is a door of _time_."

She turned her skeptical gaze on me.

"There's no such thing," she said flatly.

"Oh, it is the last one, I admit, but it is indeed a door of time. Once we step through, we will venture into the past."

"Will... that is, can we leave?" Link asked.

"We can return here easily enough," I nodded a little. "But if you mean can we leave the temple and walk the past, then no. That was one of the precautions Rauru and I agreed upon when I asked him to help me preserve this place."

"Who's Rauru?" Midna asked.

"He was the last of the ancient Sages who built the Temple of Time, and then helped me to move it many centuries later..."

After a moment, I shook my head, and turned to the stone-seeming door, and gave them a delicate brush with my fingertips. The doors swung inwards, towards us, and the air seemed to waver and ripple. Midna dove into Link's shadow, and he hesitantly followed me into the past.

The Temple of Time, caught in a moment of grandeur, still has the power to take my breath from me. The high vaulted ceilings still echo with the ancient chant of the Song of Time, while the marble floor is polished and new, gleaming and no longer strewn with rubble and moss. The stairs are whole, and uncarpeted, and light pours in from the tall windows on either side.

As the doors swung silently shut behind us, I heard Link stop short and let out an awed breath.

"This is the past?" he asked softly.

"For this version of the temple, yes. This is the past. But when we moved the temple, Rauru and I agreed to make some changes," I replied softly, slowly descending the stairs. "So if you feel like some things are missing, it's because they are."

The Pedestal of Light had been changed to the symbol of the Royal Family, though the teleportation node had remained. The marble alter was gone, and the stairs down had been a new addition. Still. Still the Temple of Time gave the air of peace and tranquility that had made it home so long ago, and makes it a home yet.

"I don't... see the mirror shard," Midna said after a long moment, once we both stood solidly on the stone flooring.

"I feel it," I said, frowning faintly. "It's... down?"

I blinked, and glanced downwards.

"Yes. Down. Strange. I didn't think there _was_ a down."

"Ehehe, something you don't know?~"

Because she meant it to tease, I didn't snap at Midna. But the question bothered me just the same. Had Rauru added an entire level to the temple, without my knowledge or input? How? And more importantly, _why_?

"Well, let's start looking," I said briskly. "If there is a down, there must be a _way_ down."

In truth, I had never thought there might be _more_ to the temple. I had never _needed_ there to be more to the temple, so I had never once thought that sneaky old Rauru would find a purpose towards more alterations than what we had already done. I had never looked beyond the main room that brought me comfort and peace, and so missed what had been changed, pretty much under my very nose.

We found the stairs down hidden under the main stairs in an alcove I had previously ignored, and followed them. Lamps lit by magical crystal instead of flame glowed on the walls, and the faint notes of music seemed to follow us down; clearly the peaceful aura of the temple had followed to the unexpected extra space.

The room we walked into was large and open, roughly the same size as the main floor overhead. A large brass bell dominated the middle of the room, snug against the floor, and I could hear the faintest hum of a dormant spell coming from it. The door to pass further in was flanked by two recesses. One held a statue; the other was empty.

"That's funny," Midna said, popping up after a minute. "In the grove, there were two. And upstairs, there were two. Why's there only one here?"

"That... is an excellent question," I said after a moment, frowning a little. "If I had to hazard a guess, a second statue would be part of the locking mechanism to let us further in..."

"So we'll have to first find a second statue, and then somehow get it here?" Midna made a faint sound of disgust.

"Pretty much," I nodded a little.

"Not... um... that statue is pretty big," Link said after a minute. "It's not gonna fit through any of those doors..."

"No, prob-doors?" I blinked, and turned to look at him. "What doors?"

Wordlessly, he pointed; beyond the door we'd come in were six others, each bearing a familiar symbol. I felt my breath catch, and walked up the staircase that led to the balcony where each door rested. Tucked into a recession in the wall, smack in the middle, was a small chest, which opened with a light touch. The map I expected; Rauru would not set a challenge without also granting some small measure of aid. It was not the map that took the breath out of me.

Under the map rested something I had not given conscious thought to in several centuries.

The Light Medallion.

My hands shook as I reached out to pick it up, and once it was in my hands, I was briefly swept away; I blinked, and found myself in the Chamber of Sages, locked away so long ago, but at the same time I knew it was not. There was a misty haze that blanketed the space, obscuring most of the pedestal I stood on, and all the others save where old Rauru stood.

"Raiha," he said softly. "I apologize for this surprise. To borrow the words of the long-ago princess, when you hold the Light Medallion in your hand, I will no longer be around."

Since that had been the question about to burst out of me, I remained silent, and anxiety drained out of me, replaced by pain. The old man had been my teacher, and my friend. Though we had only met in the physical world twice, in dreams we had communicated, and he had imparted everything there was to know about the light power housed within me.

Despite his physical appearance, I had never really thought of him as _old_. And I had never thought that there might come a day where I wouldn't be able to call upon him if I ever needed him. I hadn't called in so long... it was foolish of me, but I had hoped that he would always remain.

"I apologize, my child, but even in the Temple of Light, one can only hold off time for so long," the old man sighed a little. "And after we moved the Temple to safety, it was only a matter of time. You needed only to bind the Temple itself, but I felt that a day would come when there would need to be more to it, when you would return, and things undone would need to come to fruition again.

"In that path, I have created this place, and this test. In this temple lies the key to moving the statues, a treasure from the Oocca people known as the Dominion Rod. You will need this to further your quest, and I hope once you have finished, you will return it for me...

"Also in this temple lie the Sage Medallions."

The imprinted memory paused, just as the real old man would have, to allow me a chance to absorb this information. The news was like a punch to the gut, and I sank to my knees in tremulous shock.

The Sage Medallions are artifacts from the era of the Hero of Time that grant the wielder special gifts, based on the properties of each medallion. Light cast a soft glow, and enables rapid healing; Shadow imparts invisibility; Spirit inspires and grants determination to continue on when the moment seems to much. Forest provides food—anything that can be grown, the medallion can produce; Water produces precisely that, and Fire gives warmth and comfort.

I had meant, as I always did, to retrieve them one day. But the Sages were never required, and thus, any chance of gaining them became a moot point. Instead, the constructs were created... and I have already said what happened with those.

To say I was stunned was an understatement. The medallions are precious, powerful magical artifacts, ones to neither give, nor use, lightly.

"This is not going to be a fair test, my child, for your skills are far beyond what could be considered that," Rauru continued gravely. "Each of the six rooms can only be opened by clearing the room before it. The Light Medallion is the only 'gimme' you will get. Take care. I know you will do well."

The mist swept over the room, blinding me, and when it cleared, I was kneeling on the floor before the chest again, Light Medallion clutched in my hands. I bowed my head, and let silent tears drip down my cheeks, doing what I could to stem a tide of memory that, I admit, I didn't actually want to forget.

Small hands brushed anxiously over my bound hair, and a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders, squeezing gently, but firmly; a reminder that I was not alone. I took in a shuddery breath, then let it out, and lifted my head, easing my grip on the piece of the past that so made me hurt.

"I'm all right," I said quietly, wiping a hand across my face. "Just... memories."

"Did you go see someone?" Link asked quietly.

"Sort of. Rauru left a message. And a gift. This," and I gently shifted the golden disc in my hands. "This is the Light Medallion. There are five others in this temple, and an artifact of the Oocca he called the Dominion Rod, which should allow us to get through those doors."

"Is there a chance that the mirror shard is somewhere in the temple with the medallions?" Midna asked.

I closed my eyes briefly to concentrate, then shook my head.

"No. It's beyond those doors behind us..."

I stood slowly, feeling old for the first time in a handful of decades. To my surprise, Link's arm only shifted so that it was wrapped around my waist, and Midna perched herself on my shoulder.

"Before you say _anything_ ridiculous, we're coming with you," Midna said firmly. "Right Link?"

"Right," he replied with a sharp nod.

"But... this is my test," I protested. "You two should focus on finding the Dominion Rod, and getting the statue, not... go out of your way to fight against the things I'll be facing."

"You've done everything here for _us_ ," Link said.

"Even if it wasn't always nice," Midna muttered, briefly rebellious.

"We want to help you," he finished, briefly tightening the arm around my waist. "That's what friends do."

It is humbling to realize that, no matter how hard I try, no matter the cold facade I can cultivate, Link can always slip in. He is never the _same_ person, each Link is solely their own... but some things do not change.

His support, once he comes to know me, has never faltered. Not once.

It almost made me start crying again, but I managed to keep the tears in check this time; there was no time to waste on the sentimentality of them, not if we were going to find five Sage Medallions, the Dominion Rod, _and_ the Mirror Shard before things got worse in Hyrule.

"Thank you," I said softly.

"Right!" Midna slid off me, plainly reassured that I would be all right, and looked to the six doors. "Which one first?"

"He said that to open the doors, I first have to clear the room before it. Which ever door on either end opens first, that's where I... _we_ , start."

I tucked the medallion away into a pouch, and gave myself a stern mental shake. Now was not the time to fall apart and make myself useless. Rauru had given me a gift indeed, even if the gift was long, and late in coming. And whose fault was that, if not mine?

Midna dove back into Link's shadow in preparation; the Hero gave me one last slight squeeze then released me. With a tired sigh, and another swipe of my hand over my face to rub away the last of the trickling tears, I moved to see which door would give first.

The door on the farthest left opened with only a touch, and we stepped through to find ourselves in a forest clearing, surrounded on all sides with trees and bushes grown so close to one another that trying to get through them would have been difficult at best, impossible at worst.

As the entrance snapped shut behind us, it felt as though everything about me was dampened down. I reached mentally for any of my Light Spirits, but all I received was silence. In a desperate bid to avoid panic—it hadn't hurt, but it _was_ unnerving to say the least—I forced myself to take a look around the place we had stepped into.

This was not my woods, not the last of the Lost Woods, but it felt... similar. On a hunch, I whistled the notes of Saria's song, and a path opened to our left.

"Well... that's a start, I suppose," I muttered, trying to keep my voice steady.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. I just need to... adjust..."

"Adjust to what?" And he laid a worried hand on my arm.

I grimaced a little, then sighed.

"I'm cut off from the spirits... That's all."

For him, that was enough to cause worry, and it was writ loud on his face. I won't lie, while it was _gentler_ than what had happened with the twilight, being cut off from the extra power wasn't comforting for me either.

Still, after a minute I dusted off my stubborn determination—for that is what spurs me on most days—and headed for the open trail, Link following cautiously behind. It was a narrow pathway, hemming us in on either side until Link was forced to drop back. Wary, certain that if we became separated, he could get lost for good in this wood, I reached a hand back; he grabbed it and held on.

The path finally ended in another clearing, but this one was darker, more foreboding. The treetops met overhead, and any light that made it through was weak and straggly at best. The forest lacked any of the typical animal noises; no birdsong, no hints of things like squirrels, or foxes, no breeze that rattled the leaves overhead.

It was still, and quiet... and yet somehow eerily familiar.

A number of paths branched outward from the clearing, which held a small, deep pool at the far end of it, pressed up against a rock face. That more than anything triggered the memories of walking this same twisting, winding maze of a forest, first with a young boy who pulled me along in eager glee, then a young man who walked beside me with an undeniable strength.

"Son of a bitch," I whispered.

"What?" Link anxiously squeezed my hand. "What's wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong, I just..."

After a moment I shook my head.

"I just remembered what makes this place familiar... I think I know how to solve this one. We just have to...to listen closely."

Link fell silent, his hand still holding tightly to mine as I closed my eyes and concentrated. There, at the farthest point from us, I picked up faint, familiar notes. Feeling both more confident and more shaky, I headed for the path.

The forest seemed to grow more dense as we approached the heart of it, the song growing louder with each turn we made. I suspect if I hadn't held Link's hand, we would have become separated as the path narrowed, then narrowed again, to the point of us ducking branches, and high-stepping over thick roots in our path.

We ended up in a large clearing at the last, with the only exit being the entrance we had just walked through; as the wolfos jumped from the bushes, I released Link's hand and drew my sword, feeling only a brief, blinding rush of memories that I ruthlessly thrust aside. The wolfos were not polite, they attacked as a pack, not individually, which meant Link and I had to fend them off from multiple angles.

It felt like hours had passed by the time the last fell; my arms ached from the exertion, and judging by Link's panting breaths, he was no better. Given that both of us had only just recently recovered, perhaps running the gamut of my tests ought to have waited...

At the far end of the clearing, I saw a broken stair, a dead old tree, and a tree stump. A tall painting rested against the stump, and I caught my breath to see it, swallowing hard.

"Who's that?" Link asked.

"I... her name was Saria. A long time ago, she helped me... We were friends."

Cautiously, waiting for something _else_ to jump me—could it really be so simple?—I crossed the clearing, and touched the painting. Green hair, green clothes, eyes that were a clear, calming blue... She sat on the stump, her ocarina cradled in her hands, and smiled brightly at the viewer. Beyond her was the forest, nothing but tall trees and shadows.

"At least, that was what we promised... right, Saria?" I said softly. "That we would ever be friends?"

The background of the painting seemed to flicker briefly, and one of the shadows became more distinct. Humanoid in form. Reflex had me leaping back as it jumped forward, emerging from the painting as though it were a door, leading with a spear that gleamed in the daylight that pierced the trees.

Out of the painting, it was tall, taller than I was; it seemed to be made of wood, and wore a feathered, painted mask on its head. In one hand was the spear that had tried to skewer me, in the other, a tall shield; it spoke a language I could _almost_ understand, but not quite. Still the threat was unmistakeable, and worn out already or not, I had to face the challenge.

I drew my sword again, and felt more than saw Link come up on my left.

"This is my fight-" I tried to protest.

"No, it's _our_ fight," he said stubbornly. "Like all the rest."

I would have tried to argue further, but the creature thrust forward with its spear, and the battle was joined.

It was, I admit, not the best battle. I was exhausted from both my emotional outburst and the long walk, then the long fight with the wolfos. My muscles burned with fatigue, and my reflexes were, to put it kindly, absolutely shot. I think I took more hits in the first few minutes of the fight than I have taken in any battle since save the fracas with Morpha another lifetime ago.

Link was doing only a little better, mostly because the strange, dancing thing was focused on me. It ignored him entirely unless he got in the way, and even then, it only swatted him aside with the shield or the shaft of the spear. _Link_ held no interest to the creature. Only I did. In a way, it was beneficial, even if it caused me injury. As with our other fights, I was the bait.

When Link managed to get a successful jump strike that knocked it ass over teakettle, I was bleeding from a dozen different shallow slices, and definitely thinking less than happy thoughts about my former teacher. Giving me a challenge is one thing, but making the challenge, then cutting me off from my spirits seemed a special sort of cheap.

The puppet-creature—it was, in point of fact, made of wood as I had initially thought—rattled a little as it gathered its long limb and prepared to get back up.

But I had had enough. Tired or not, I held up my left hand, and fire grew in my palm, becoming a ball with only a minor amount of thought, and I flung it, _hard_ at the creature's face. The mask caught fire with surprising speed, and it howled as the flames spread, slowly, but surely, confusing it.

It tried to run, either to escape, or simply to spread the flames, but I was done, done _done_ with this nonsense. It ran face first into a barrier spell instead, and collapsed backwards, where I pinned it with the same spell until it was nothing more than ash.

At the heart of the ash, something small, and green glowed. At first I believed it to be the Kokiri Emerald, but no; I had retrieved that from the Hero of Time not long after his return, and stored it away in safety. Cautiously I approached, releasing the barrier to let the sudden breeze that had sprung up blow away the ashes.

And there it was; the Forest Medallion.

It was streaked with soot, and warm to the touch from being enveloped in fire, but I picked it up anyways.

 _I will_ always _be your friend_.

I jumped a foot, and whipped around to stare at the painting. But the painting had vanished, and in its place was an archway that glimmered with magic.

"...you okay?" Link asked gingerly.

"I don't know... but come on, let's get back to the temple...I need a nap."


	21. Twenty

Twenty

The main room with the brass bell was a welcome sight after being immersed in the first trial, and we both half-collapsed to the stone flooring from sheer exhaustion. My spirits didn't _clamor_ per se, but I felt them each, their anxiety and concern, as my connection to them was reestablished, and the energy that flooded into and through me was a welcome boost.

Link got no such boost, and was already half-asleep by the time I pulled out the Light Medallion to give it a chance of sealing my injuries. He was completely asleep when I carefully placed it in his palm, and finally put the Forest Medallion away. The room was warm enough that he didn't seem bothered by lack of blanket or bedroll, but I still somehow dredged up the energy to drape his over him.

Not that I stayed awake much longer; my magical energy was renewed, and in a pinch, yes, I could have drawn on it to boost my physical energy, but I didn't want to. I just wanted to rest, and let my confused mind and bruised heart get a chance to recover from the shocks of the afternoon... So I wrapped myself in a fur covering, curled into a ball, and let go of the world.

I am fairly sure that both of us slept for about twelve hours, give or take a few minutes. At some point, I must have rolled over, for my hand rested over the Light Medallion, and his, when I woke.

I drew away quietly and with care, feeling... not _lighter_ , but not as if I was half-dead either. My body responded easily and without fuss to what I needed it to do, as though I hadn't recently cast strong magic, or been fighting for hours upon end. The stiffness and soreness I had expected simply weren't there.

"Feeling better?"Midna asked.

"Physically better or emotionally better?"

"...yes."

I snorted a little, and managed a wry smile.

"Physically, yes, I'm fine. Benefits of the Light Medallion."

"And emotionally?"

I sighed a little.

"I'll live. I won't enjoy this, but I'll live."

"Well, that's good. Link would be very upset if you decided to die over this."

I bit my tongue on a retort; as much as I trusted them, cared for them, they didn't need to know that I couldn't actually die. Instead I only shrugged and pulled the Forest Medallion out, generating fresh fruits that would make for a good start to breakfast.

Link was awake by the time it was ready, bright-eyed and clearly eager to move onto whatever the next challenge would be. After returning the medallion to me, he practically jumped on the food, and sooner rather than later, we were ready to head for the next challenge.

The middle-left door opened to a blast of heat, exposing us to the heart of a volcano. The roar of an angry dragon reached our ears even as we hastily swapped normal tunics for the heat-resistant Goron tunics, found by a walloping crunch of someone or some _thing_ hitting rock hard enough to shatter it.

"Where's _this?_ " Link yelped as the door snapped shut on his heels, and I was once again cut off from my spirits.

"At a guess? Death Mountain," I called back, throwing my equipment back on and looking around as the dragon's wild scream sounded again. "A _young_ Death Mountain at that!"

It was a fair enough assumption; a number of platforms hung over a roiling body of lava, held only just in check by the low walls. Overhead the sky was obscured by the ash and smoke, but it _almost_ look like the bright blue of early morning. It looked nothing like the Goron Mines we had traversed, or the ancient mountain that I only just remembered.

The dragon screeched a third time, and I finally pinpointed it amidst the rippling wave of heat that rose from the bubbling lava below. Volvagia, the same dragon that Ganondorf had resurrected centuries ago, whirled around in the air, using the intense heat to glide a path around a solitary figure on the largest bit of land. Though small at the distance we were, I was willing to swear the figure—a Goron, for who _else_ could stand in a raging volcano?—was holding a hammer.

I didn't bother to stop and ask myself it this was a good idea; I avoided looking down, and jumped from platform to platform until semi-solid ground was reached.

The Goron figure had seemed small at a distance, but up close and personal, he was about the height of Darbus, though he was built more like Darunia had been. He spun at my approach, brandishing the hammer threateningly.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "How do humans walk among the heat of the volcano and no perish?"

"...let's go with magic," I said, holding my hands out cautiously, "and save the rest of the questions for another time, because I _don't_ think that dragon is going to give us the space to actually talk!"

He wasn't either; Volvagia swooped down, and let loose a streamer of fire, which he followed up with a handful—clawful? Whatever—of rocks that were astoundingly accurate. There was a lot of swearing and dodging for a good two minutes.

' "What's going _on_?" Link yelped.

"Volvagia threatens my people and the lands below," the Goron replied, shaking the hammer at the back of the dragon. "To save my people and our human allies, I, Daro, Hero of the Gorons, chose to come up here and slay him."

"Obviously, he's not cooperating," I said a little dourly, checking carefully to make sure nothing of _me_ was lit on fire.

"No, little human, he is not. He will not swing low enough to meet the hammer!"

And Daro hefted the megaton hammer like it weighed little more than a feather; for him, it probably did, but I could remember the Hero of Time struggling to heft it properly. It was just a flash of memory, but it connected enough dots that I immediately began searching about for a piece of land that would do for the lead in.

When I saw it, Volvagia had just made its turn for another blast of flame. Nothing loathe, I grabbed Daro's arm, and ducked under his bulk as he provided an _excellent_ shield from the flame.

Seriously, Goron are pretty much indestructible. It's a very useful thing.

"Look, if you get over to _that_ narrow bit of land, I think we can bait him in."

"Bait?"

I nodded a little.

"We'll keep the dragon distracted while you get into place, and then piss him off enough that he comes charging in. When that happens, wham goes the hammer and crunch goes the dragon. Yeah?"

"This puts danger on you, little human."

"Been there, done that, survived it last time, gonna survive it now cause I'd _never_ hear the end of it if I didn't," I replied, making a face. "It might _hurt_ , but then, if we win?"

Link chose that moment to dive into the protection of Daro's bulk as as Volvagia came around yet again. The Goron seemed torn, but after a moment, he nodded in agreement.

"Okay, get yourself to the end of that platform, and be ready. Link? Ready to play dragon bait?"

The hero gave me a wide-eyed stare that was somewhere between 'you've lost it' and 'Oh my god we're going to die.' Despite the clear danger in the situation, I had to grin.

"Trust me. This should work."

Daro clapped us both on the shoulders, nearly knocking us to the ground from the unexpectedness of it, then bounded off; when Volvagia turned to follow, I twisted, bringing the bow to bear on the great dragon, and shot him in the face.

Unlike the resurrected dragon, whose head had been made of bone that only the hammer could damage, _this_ dragon was hale, and scaled from snout to tail tip. My arrow still skittered off the face, but when straight through one ear, making the dragon howl in pain.

"Welp, that got his attention~"

It did too; ignoring the moving Goron for the moment, Volvagia headed right for us.

"What are we _doing_?" Link yelped as he dodged the plume of fire.

"Pissing it off!" I replied with a laugh.

I heard him groan a little, but chose to ignore his muttering; it was probably unflattering, and I also deserved whatever remarks he made.

Volvagia came back, armed with rocks that it hurled at me; some I dodged by simply moving left or right, one or two I jumped over. Reflexively, I reached for a pouch of deku nuts that I didn't have, and was forced to duck behind one of the larger rocks as flame splattered the ground.

I felt more than heard the explosion, and peered around around the melting edges of the boulder to see Link, armed with a bomb bag and a look of 'I have got to be out of my mind' writ loud across his face. I grinned, giving him a thumbs up, then jumped out from behind my boulder and shot the dragon again; this time I had a better chance to aim, and my shot zinged _just_ past his eye. I only missed because he jinked his head at the last second, and hurled rocked at both of us.

We took it in turns; Link would throw a bomb—which, while not necessarily damaging, was deafening and disorienting for the dragon—I would shoot an arrow, and then Volvagia would lunge for us, attacking either with fire or with rocks. Because the gliding was imperfect, it had to make a pass, then come back around to regain the height of safety.

But each return pass was lower; it was realizing that unless it actually swooped down, we were just as out of reach as it was.

When I finally managed to puncture one green eye, that seemed to be the end of the 'toying' phase; Volvagia's roar was loud, and shook the _entire_ volcano, causing the lava to bubble and burst in echo of the dragon's anger.

"Okay, time to go now!"

I grabbed Link by the arm as the dragon came in low and we took off, pelting from platform to platform as the dragon gave single-minded chase; I glanced back once to see that the fiery blood had seared my arrow away and was leaving little angry pits in the ground. Beside me, just managing to keep up, Link looked almost like he was laughing from the sheer amount of extreme danger we had thrown ourselves into.

I had to laugh a bit wildly myself; of all the things I _might_ have expected, facing the dragon was certainly not one of them. But in retrospect, it certainly seems apropos; Fire Medallion, fire dragon of death, doom, and destruction.

In any case, the plan worked to perfection... almost. As we came upon the spit of land where Daro rested, I heard the dragon breathe in; I glanced back just in time to see the flames coming straight for us, and did the only thing I could in the moment.

I yanked Link out of the way and took the hit.

He went into a fairly uncontrolled tumble to the left, fortunately nowhere near the lava; I went right, swearing as I felt the heat overwhelming the enchantment. My quiver and all my arrows were lost in that instant, as the tunic itself, the chainmail, and the shirt beneath were immolated. Pain, white-hot and deadly seared my back.

I'm fairly sure I screamed.

The fire was abruptly cut off by the sound of a hammer crushing scale and bone, and my less than controlled tumble came to a halt; I decided in the moment that not moving was probably in my best interest.

Link scrambled over, the panic evident in his steps if not his voice calling out my name. He skidded to a halt at my side, and I heard him utter a low, horrified moan. I don't know how bad my back looked, but from the sound alone, I and guess it was anything other than pleasant. No doubt if I was not mandated, that would have been the end of me.

It's not the first time I've felt fortunate to have the immortality the goddesses conveyed to me. Ir probably won't be the last, either.

"Light... medallion," I managed to cough out.

He fumbled in the pouch on my right hip and managed to press it into my hand. The pain was immediately numbed out, and I breathed a somewhat easier breath, turning my head with a wince as other footsteps, heavier ones, approached us.

"That was foolhardy, little human," Daro said gravely.

"But it worked..."

I heard the exasperated sigh, then he bent into my view.

"Be more careful of yourself, little human. And take this for your courage."

Gently into my other hand he dropped the Fire Medallion; before us, a portal opened up, allowing us to exit back to the Temple of Time. I managed it, with help from Link, who tried _very hard_ to not touch my back, and laid me very gently on the cool stone of the balcony before he flopped down and let out a sigh of relief.

"Are you just _crazy_ or something?!" Midna demanded. "That almost killed you!"

"Ah, but the keyword there, my dear, is _almost_ ," I said with a faint wince as I carefully adjusted how I was lying. "Besides, I've used that trick before. A long time ago."

"Okay, but please be _less_ reckless," Link pleaded, looking over at me from where he lay. "That was _scary_."

"I told you that you didn't have to come," I pointed out. "Tests scaled to me aren't exactly going to be the most friendly thing in the world. Sometimes you have to do stupid things in order to win."

"That wasn't stupid, it was _suicidal!_ " Midna retorted.

"That would be why I didn't let Link take fire to the back. _I_ can survive such things. Barely, maybe, but I can. Beside, in that case it was an either or; I took the option that wouldn't result in crispy-friend hero!"

I was, perhaps, being a bit sharper than necessary. They were upset because they had been scared for me, and on an intellectual level, I did understand it. I have certainly been angry-scared before. But in the moment I had survived, and earned back the Fire Medallion. I was, I admit, _less_ than appreciative of their concern.

Midna made a sound of disgust and jumped back into the shadows while Link slowly pushed himself back upright and came to sit closer to me.

"How's it looking?" I asked. "Any better?"

"...comparatively, yeah," he said, glancing at my back with a wince. "But everything you were carrying is a bit of a loss..." He paused, then gingerly touched my shoulder. "Seriously, please don't do that again?"

"I promise nothing," I said, a bit acerbically.

He sighed mournfully, hanging his head a bit, and after a moment, I sighed too.

"Look, it's not a dig about your ability to take a hit, or pain tolerance, it's about what you can _survive_. I? Can survive a lot of things that would kill an ordinary person. So if I see something coming that will hurt, I step in the way to take it."

"But it's not pleasant to watch..."

"And I get that, I do," and irritated or not, I gentled my voice. "It's never fun watching a friend get hurt. But here's the thing, hero. If you die? We're _all_ doomed."

I shifted cautiously, and felt taut skin pulling across my shoulders and back. After a moment, I grimaced and settled back down on the floor.

"Hey, do me a favor?"

"...what?"

"Put the Light Medallion on my back. I need free hands for this."

He gave me a suspicious look, and I have to admit, I could hardly blame him.

"Seriously, I can't be bogged down for a day, or however long this is going to take to heal with _just_ the Medallion. And don't tell me you didn't get slightly singed yourself a couple of times," I said sharply.

"It would serve you right if you were for freaking us out," Midna said waspishly, though she didn't emerge from the shadows.

I just rolled my eyes a little, and waited. After a moment, with clear reluctance, Link carefully plucked the Light Medallion from my hand, and quickly transferred it to my neck. I still felt the abrupt blunt impact of pain, but managed to bite my tongue on any further swearing.

Fortunately enough for me, I keep the Ocarina in a side pouch, and slowly I moved my hand down until I could get it out, then carefully brought it up to my mouth so I could play the Song of Healing. The song got an unexpected energy boost, both from the medallion and from my anxious spirits, who were _also_ displeased that I had gotten myself so lethally injured.

Yes. Anyone else would have been dead. If not for the Light Medallion, we would have needed to visit Faron's spring for a very long soak. It was reckless, and dangerous, and given more time to think I _probably_ could have come up with a better solution. But I did not, and thusly had to deal with the consequences, even if only for a short time.

It was not the overwhelming trance-like state I had entered into to heal Link, but I admit, I did lose at least an hour to the song and the magic, if not more.

When I sat up, the remains of the shirt and chainmail promptly fell off. I sighed and stripped, much to Link's embarrassed squawk, changing into clothing that was _not_ ruined or damaged, then held up the remains of my fire tunic with annoyed disgust.

"This is such a lost cause," I grumbled. "I suppose I'll have to enchant a new one instead... Tch."

Most of my hair had been crisped too; that, at least, was an easy fix, though it did cause a pang of regret. I do love my hair, long or short.

Once finished with tidying up, I carefully repacked everything, and started working on making a new, temporary, quiver from some of the canvas and furs. Sewing is by far my _least_ favorite activity, but I am not unskilled, and I was in no hurry to tempt fate with door number three. I admit, I also hoped that if I waited long enough, Link would doze off and then I could chance the test on my own.

But the boy was adamantly staring at me, almost angrily at that. It was actually kind of cute, if I'm being honest.

"Speak your mind or don't, but staying angry about a fact is just going to wear you out," I said dryly, turning the makeshift quiver to start the next seam.

"Don't you _care_ about your own life?"

"That's a funny question."

"It.." he spluttered a bit. "How?!"

"Everyone cares about their own life," I replied, keeping my voice calm. "I just happen to be in the unique position where I don't have to care as _much_."

I glanced at him and saw confusion and frustration in equal measure. After a moment, I sighed a little, and shook my head.

"Puppy, whatever preconceived notions you might have about me, I advise you to throw them out the window. In case you missed this, I'm not exactly normal by _any_ stretch of the word. Or do you know many other people who can claim to be the ally of both Zora _and_ Goron, _and_ a friend to the Royal Family. Were you not listening when I said that _I_ made the Mirror of Twilight?"

I slanted him a sharp look, and saw him staring at the floor. I sighed again.

"Link, in the plainest terms, I am not like you. I do not get reborn as you do. I simply _live_ , and believe me, it's not a lot of fun. So yes, I do recklessly stupid things, but it's not because my life has little meaning; it's because yours means _more_ to me."

"But why?" he asked plaintively."It just.. it doesn't seem the same..."

"Probably because it's not. Look, c'mere, let me tell you a story."

He scooted in closer as I sorted through ancient memory, calling for help from my spirits who could fill in the gaps with the memories I had imparted to them.

"A long _long_ time ago, when the Triforce was broken, I was there," I said, slowly setting my stitches. "Not only was I there, but I could have prevented it from happening, if I'd had just a _tiny_ bit more knowledge. Because I didn't, I was told I had to fix it."

"...that doesn't seem fair."

I snorted in wry amusement.

"No, I guess not. And in the long centuries since, I've had plenty of time to complain about that. But it was my ignorance that led to the sundering, and that makes it my job to fix it. A job that I can't do alone; I _need_ your help. _I_ have all sorts of helpful things more or less built into me. It still hurts like hell to be injured, but I will _survive_ things that would kill anyone else. I have to, if I'm going to fix things. And make no mistake, even though I sometimes don't appreciate the mandate, I _chose_ this path."

I set the last stitch, then flipped the quiver inside out to make sure it didn't look too awful. Link stared at his hands for a minute, then uncertainly back up at me.

"I just don't like watching you get hurt, or risk your life because I'm not strong enough," he finally said.

"Puppy, you're plenty strong enough," I replied, patting his shoulder lightly. "And you get stronger every day, regardless of our setbacks. Believe me, I'm _not_ a fan of pain. I just don't want _you_ getting hurt either. You're... my friend."

A pale comparison to other Heroes, but then, friendship was—is—precious enough.

He was quiet while I sewed on the straps that I could use to tie the quiver on, and a glance over showed that he seemed to be pondering what I'd said.

"So... what next?" he asked finally.

"We be grateful that I only lost the quiver and arrows and not the bow too," I said dryly.

He snorted a little, which was exactly the reaction I'd hoped for.

"Seriously though, food, and a short nap before taking on door number three is probably a good idea. Hopefully it'll be nicer, but I'm not holding my breath. Are you _sure_ you want to keep trying to tag along? These tests aren't exactly made for you..."

"We're coming," he repeated stubbornly. "If we don't, you'll probably get hurt again!"

I couldn't help it, I had to laugh.


	22. Twenty-one

Twenty-one

The third-left door dropped us abruptly into water. Or rather, it abruptly dropped _me_ into water; when I glanced around, taking in sights that rang alarming bells in my brain, I saw no sign of Link or Midna. The water was, fortunately, only ankle deep.

But it was a place I knew.

I rather hoped they had simply bounced of the entrance and were now simply waiting back in the temple, because I certainly didn't want either of them to face _this_ particular grueling test.

The room seemed large and open, but it was just an illusion; I knew if I started walking, I'd eventually find my way blocked by the wall that was there. At the far end of the room was another door, though it appeared to be sealed shut. In the middle of the water was a sandy dune that held a single, dead tree.

I couldn't keep the memory from taking over, and I didn't bother to try. Flashes of the Water Temple ran through my brain, much muddled and dimmed by time, but certainly enough to let me know that this room was going to cause _problems_.

In that long ago temple, the room I now stood in, water soaking through my boots, had challenged me to beat the strength and skill of myself _then_ , a fight I had won, but only by losing my temper and tricking my shadow-self into meeting a fireball head on. _That_ had been when I was still relatively unskilled.

I have had centuries of time to become precise with a sword, skilled with spells. Even without the excess power of my spirits, I am not to be trifled with. By that reasoning, my shadow would also be more than capable.

I pressed my lips tightly together, then walked up to the tree; _she_ waited there already, there was no need to cross the room and pretend shock at the lack of reflection in the glass-like water. All shades of black and gray, she was, like, but unlike Midna. Red eyes glowed with life and purpose, and as I stepped up, she stepped away from the tree, sword in one hand... and fire spell already building in the other.

I drew my own sword, and we mockingly saluted one another before the fight began in earnest. A feint became a flaming punch, the razor's edge of the gilded sword nipped in and out in a probe of defenses, a leg snapped out into a sidekick in a split-second of inattention...

I apologize, I am not trying to gloss it over, but it was... an intense fight. And a painful one. Instead of being my mirror until I landed a lucky hit, she started with putting _me_ on the defensive, forcing me to block and guard on reflex alone, while also countering spells. I ended up juggling three spells at a time, plus guarding against probing sword strikes, and the occasional attempt at hand-to-hand.

At least this time I had Nayru's Love to keep me from getting too severely injured; where my doppelganger favored fire, I had learned to work _with_ the environment I was in, and I chose to use ice. Yes, fire can _melt_ ice, but the room was practically _made_ of water, and all the fire did was add more water, which gave _me_ more ammunition.

I started getting... creative, I suppose. I splashed water up, hit it with the ice spell while it was moving, and shot ice pellets at her face, forcing _her_ onto her guard. Or I hit the water with enough force to launch a wave, which got hit with the ice spell fast enough that it turned into a knee high sharp display that she actually _did_ run into.

The trick was to not think. If you act on reflex, yes, you can still be predictable, but not _as_ predictable. This is why I always tell everyone I train that if you're going to fight, you _fight_ , you do not try and plan for every move, every counter.

I admit, if it _hadn't_ been for the very real threat of needing _months_ to recover if my shield spell faltered, it actually could have been... fun. It was a challenge, a _true_ challenge of my skills, something that only a very few could manage.

That said, when I finally _did_ land the decisive blow, rather mundanely stabbing her through the chest in what is still the luckiest shot I have _ever_ made, I was all kinds of worn down and ready to just be _done_. Magically and physically, I was exhausted, so when the illusion faded out and the door opened, I just kind of stood there for a few minutes, feeling the icy water that soaked my feet and the throb of new bruises and cracks in bones.

Just because Nayru's love can block _most_ of the damage doesn't mean it blocks it all. The transmission of force still applies, even if the sharp edges of the blade couldn't actually do more than damage my outer tunic, and screech across my mail.

Eventually it clicked that I was done, and I released the spells, sheathing my sword with a faintly pained groan—I had no one to impress or hide things from, so I felt little shame in admitting that _everything_ hurt with some grunts and groans—to stagger and splash my way to the door.

Beyond it was a small room, tiled in the blues and purples of the ancient temple, with a hint of coral carving, and soft sand scattered all over the floor. In the center of the room was a statue, that for all intents and purposes appeared to be worn down by time. It was of a Zora, her facial features _just_ distorted enough to be indistinguishable, her hands held together before her; resting in her palms was the blue Water Medallion, which I just stared at rather blankly for along moment before scooping it up and putting it away.

Beyond the statue, once I'd taken the medallion, a tall rectangle of light appeared. From somewhere, I managed to dredge up the energy to stagger to, and through it, and was caught as I tripped by Link.

"Are you okay?" He asked anxiously. "Where'd you go?!"

"And why didn't we make it through too?" Minda chimed in, sounding more annoyed than anything else.

"Be glad you didn't," I said wearily. "I'm more or less fine, just... exhausted. And sore. Again."

"These tests are kind of brutal on you," Midna said after a moment as Link helped me to sit down.

"Well, yes. Of course they are. They test _me_ , after all, and I am not exactly a flyweight."

I dropped the Water Medallion in with the other three, unwrapped my equipment, and pulled my tunic off with a grumble; it wasn't _shredded_ , but it certainly wasn't in anything I'd have considered as good repair.

"It's also doing a number on my clothing," I grumped.

Midna blinked, then giggled at me as I dug out my sewing kit once more, but before I could even start to set the stitches, Link whisked it out of my hands and very neatly started doing up the tears himself. It happened fast enough that I just kind of blinked for a few seconds.

"You _rest_ ," he said, all sternness. "I can do this for you."

"...bossy..."

He just huffed. Midna laughed this time, and I decided that arguing wasn't exactly going to work if I couldn't think of a convincing counter. And I admit, I was much to tired to even _want_ to protest. Once I had my boots off to dry, and the Light Medallion in hand, I curled up and let myself pass out for a few hours.

The rest did me good, and so did the healing. By the time I woke up, I was ready to tackle the next door...but Link was passed out, and I wasn't entirely willing to test just how upset I could make him by leaving him behind.

To be honest, I didn't _want_ to leave him behind, even as I didn't want him to keep trying to tag along into scenarios that were much more threatening to him than they were to me. In a strange way, working with a Hero every now and again—regardless of where we are in the cycle of reincarnation and battle—keeps me a modicum of sane.

I wouldn't say I'm _fully_ sane, goodness no. I spend too much time alone to ever be considered that... but being reminded that the world is still here, that even as difficult and _different_ as I am, I can still have friends and be beloved... It helps.

Anyways.

He had done a startlingly good job on fixing up all the rents and tears in my tunic, without making it too small for me to wear. I suppose it helps that I tend to sew them baggy enough to fit over the chainmail... and occasionally a couple more layers, given how much I actively dislike the cold. Either way, It fit a bit snug, but not to the point of anything being in danger of tearing again, and I set about making something to eat.

The smell of food woke Link, and he seemed back to his usual, pleased self, which worked out well; I had worried that the fracas with the Water door would have left him feeling touchy, but no, he smiled, he ate, and he geared up when I indicated it was time to see what was behind door number four. I did too, though I was debating about a better way to carry the medallions; while I had not worn a chest harness, or used throwing daggers in centuries, I was starting to wonder if that might not be the best alternative. It would, at least, provide a quicker access than digging into a pouch, no matter how magical the pouch actually was.

Given the order in which we were collecting the medallions, I wasn't too sure what would happen when we walked through that fourth door, and that made me cautiously hesitant. I had never been _allowed_ to traverse the Shadow Temple—now thankfully lost to ancient history and time. _Buried_ , I think, somewhere in the mountains, hopefully to never be unearthed by _anyone—_ because at the time, my fear of high places had been crippling. The very air of the land _before_ the temple had caused me no amount of grief too...

The door just past the recess where we had found map and Light Medallion opened to a wasteland of ice that had nothing to do with _real_ ice, and everything to do with the cold that precluded the anger of a powerful poe. The room we stepped into was enormous, lit—so to speak—by blue and purple spirit lamps that dotted the ceiling and walls in random intervals, looking more like stars than actual lights. The ceiling soared far overhead, with an opening in the top that let forth silver light as the full moon seemed perfectly positioned over it, and our footsteps echoed sharply in the icy water. Even our breathing echoed in this open space... along with the faintest hiss of sound that was not either one of us. The walls was carved with intricate symbols, that were _hauntingly_ familiar to me, though I couldn't immediately identify them.

Link inched carefully closer to me, wincing as the slight splash echoed around the room; I had to grimace a little in agreement. This room was not going to be any good for anything stealthy. At least, not for the two of us. Our mysterious poe, imprisoned in the same room _with_ us, had no such restrictions.

Spirits, after all, can _fly_.

The silence, save for the sounds of two humans and one spirit breathing—again, _don't_ ask me how dead things breath, some of them just _do—_ was almost nerve-wracking it was so tense. Light of a sort eventually bloomed in the middle of the room, and I bit my tongue _hard_ on my exclamation of surprise.

I had expected a powerful, ancient poe; perhaps something along the lines of the creature that had wielded the black sword against us in Arbiter's Grounds. Even the thing that Zant had revived would have been preferable to the being that took shape before us.

Now, I have never known much about fairies at all, save that they were often able to help past Heroes, until the ambient magic was no longer strong enough to sustain them. Great Fairies are even more incomprehensible to me; how they come to be, where, and why, their... bizarre aesthetic choices for cave decorations... I have never questioned, simply because there was never a need to know. Even as they vanished, despite the efforts of my Light Spirits, I only mourned their loss, without looking into what they were.

What took shape before us, was _almost_ a Great Fairy. Almost.

Her wings were tattered and torn, white, wispy looking things that seemed to hint at being kin to a skulltula web. Her body was emaciated, limbs looking more like twigs than healthy body parts, and her gown was just as tattered as her wings, a misty silver-gray thing that seemed to fade and reform as I watched. Her hair was wild and unbound, a dark red the color of dried blood that haloed around a face too thin to be anything but unnerving, with eyes that were, quite literally, black pits in her head.

Whether illusion or reality, it was a sight that made me want to weep; if this was what had happened to the Great Fairies, was I to blame? Should I have tried harder to save what I could of the magic that was fading more and more as the centuries passed. I knew from the start that, no matter what I did, the only savior, the only thing that will _end_ this change is to repair the Triforce, to restore the _heart_ of the magic that sustains this world. My work with the Light Spirits is only a holding action, a band-aid on the situation, and an imperfect on at that.

I still do not know how I will be able to do this, and the prospect looks bleaker with every loss...

I digress. Apologies. It is an...unpleasant memory.

Much like the ancient ReDead knights, she cut loose with a scream that the body refused to work through; a sound so piercing that it was all I could do to stay on my feet, and Link was nowhere near as lucky. I heard him yelp, and felt the displacement of water as his knees gave out. It didn't matter that the Great Fairy couldn't continue the scream; just hearing it briefly, amplified by the echoing chamber, was bad enough.

 _You... have magic... Give it... to me._

"In the politest possibly manner," I ground out through a jaw that didn't want to move, "not a chance."

She hissed at me, and her arm flashed forward in a knife-hand strike. I managed to will myself to fall backwards just _barely_ ahead of her hand, quite literally tripping over Link who yelped as he went down the rest of the way into the water; I fumbled my chances at turning my fall into a backwards somersault, instead just landing flat on my back in the ice water. Because _apparently_ I wasn't allowed to stay dry.

I thought about swearing at him, but it wouldn't have been very fair. It wasn't _his_ fault the scream of the damned was so piercing in this place. Granted, neither of us were in the best position to do much of _anything_ other than try and scramble upright and apart, Link shakily drawing his sword as he managed to roll to his feet.

I didn't bother with mine; the Gilded Sword is a precious weapon, to be sure, and time with me has purified it to a point, but _nothing_ can match that which is sealed in the Master Sword. If Link's sword couldn't harm her—and at the moment that was an unknown—then my own would be less than useful.

She fixated on me, due to both my actual, innate magical skill _and_ the magical items I was carrying, but while she could move her _arms_ at blinding speed, she couldn't actually float very swiftly. And this time, when she drew in a breath for that screech, I was ready and covered my ears as tightly as possible. It still reverberated through my body, but it didn't freeze me in place.

The cold was definitely having an adverse affect, however; between that and the shriek, my mind felt fuzzy and numb, slow and relatively useless. Lethargy clung to my limbs as I splashed away from the corrupted Fairy, making me feel more like I was trudging through snow, or deep mud instead of water.

And then, the sneaky thing changed _tactics_ on me. Seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere with the bone-shaking scream, her voice changed. Softer, more insidious, working _with_ the cold to keep my mind foggy, and slow my reactions even more.

In the end, Midna saved us both.

"What are you two _doing?!_ " she yelled, practically at the top of her lungs. "Wake _up!_ I can't do this all on my own!"

I jolted at the sound of her voice, then again as she swooped over to me and grabbed my hand, shoving it into the pouch with all the medallions.

For reference, I have indeed been hit by lightning before. This was _very_ similar, though I don't know which medallion it was in specific that jump-started my thoughts. I threw myself backwards, again, just ahead of that flashing, deadly knife-hand, and this time I did manage to roll, splattering water in my wake.

My hand, still stuffed into my pouch, came up with two medallions, and I didn't bother to question whether my reflexes were good or bad, I simply pulled them out and thrust power into them. From somewhere to my left, Link yelped as the Light Medallion threw out a burst of blinding golden-white power, while the air flash-heated thanks to the Fire Medallion.

The Fairy threw up her arms, crying out as well. For all she _wanted_ the magic, there was a difference between consuming it at her rate, and _forcing_ her to do it at mine. Half of the spirit-lamps shattered with the first blast of power, which should have thrown the room further into darkness... but it only made me draw on the power I carry, and funnel it through the Light Medallion.

She cried out again, and dove towards the floor, but Midna was ready for that, and the Fairy slammed into a solid wall of shadow that prevented any sort of egress. Link, when I risked a glance over, was still sitting in the water, looking blearily stunned, his sword held loosely in hand; I got the feeling that he was still mentally checked-out, if you will.

I raised the Light and Fire Medallions high overhead, calling to the power within them, and adding my own to it, until our shadows were the only darkness left, and the water was gently steaming. The Fairy cried out again, her hands covering her face, hiding from the light from which—so legends say—all fairies were born.

It took her a long time to fade out, but Midna kept her pinned until all that was left was an amethyst medallions slowly hovering in the air.

"What is it?" Midna asked as I lowered my stiff arms with a wince.

"That's the Shadow Medallion," I replied, shaking my head a little and spraying droplets everywhere. "One left."

"...can we dry off first?" Link asked plaintively, finally back on his feet.

"I don't think there's anything dry _on_ me," I said a little dourly as I splashed through the now-warm water to pluck the medallion from the air and officially end the spell. "This is ridiculous... My heart, my hair, my clothes, what next?"

Before us, the wall opened, and we all headed through; of the three of us, Midna was the only one _not_ soaked.

"This is what happens when you wear too many clothes," she sing-songed, floating cheerfully beside.

"Or neglect to waterproof the magic pouches," I grumbled, swiping wet strands of loose hair out of my face. "Nayru bless, but we must look like a pair of drowned rats... Look, Link, you stay here for a bit and see what you can do to dry what you can. I'll get the Skull Kid to at least find us a couple of blankets..."

Our boots squelched as we stepped onto the stone, and believe me that is both an unpleasant sound _and_ feeling. I peeled mine off with a grimace—there was no point in fussing about them, I knew I would need a new pair sooner rather than later anyways—and left them there on the balcony before I headed back up the stairs and out of the temple into midday sunshine.

I admit, after who knew how many _days_ without actually being in the sunlight, I appreciated the chance to do so. But there was no time to bask in it, which was a shame. Instead I whistled up the cheery child, who danced around me, laughing gleefully at my bedraggled appearance.

"Mother has gotten all wet!" he teased.

"Tell me something I don't know," I grumbled. "I know you've stockpiled stuff from those who came before and weren't able to leave... any chance there's dry blankets, or even clothes that aren't uselessly worn?"

"I will see, I will see, for poor Mother looks like-"

"If you finish that sentence, I'll find a way to drop you in one of the pools here," I said, only _slightly_ joking. "Not today, child, I am not in the mood."

With a skip and a laugh—the Skull Kid is ever cheerful, and never _has_ given a damn about any threat I might make—he darted off. I just grumbled half-heartedly, stripped out of my soaked things, and spread them out in the sun.

Skull Child came back shortly carrying an armful of tatty blankets that were admittedly better than nothing, and I wrapped a few around myself to avoid embarrassing Link before I headed back inside bearing a few for him.

"You might as well come out of here," I said ruefully as he accepted the blankets gingerly. "The sun will dry stuff faster than hanging around inside, and I admit, it's a very nice, soothing day out there."

"Okay. Yeah... that sounds nice, actually..."

I chuckled just a little, and scooped up my still dripping boots before heading back up ahead of him. I won't lie, given the choice between a soft bed and the outdoors, more often than not, I'll take being outside. The sun, the moon, the stars, the open air...

I admit, it took me entirely too long to remember that I could have simply dried off by utilizing the Fire Medallion... But I will say that the time outside did us good. Yes, there was still a sense of urgency, we _needed_ to get the Mirror Shard so that we could face Zant, but spend too much time lost in that urgency, and you forget how to function without it.

We didn't actually do that much; just basked in the sunlight that poured down into the clearing, and dried the myriad of things we had scattered about. My bow, and a few spare strings, the swords and their sheathes, Link's trio of tunics and the various other clothing-type items we'd gathered over the months of the journey...

My sewing kit dried out rapidly enough that I wasn't working with wet threads when I started piecing together a bandoleer for the Medallions, which would put them within easy reach. Midna drifted over, curious, and peered over my shoulder as I worked.

"So what do all of them do?" she asked curiously.

"It's fairly straightforward," I replied absently. "Forest, as you've seen, produces food. Anything that gets grown above or under ground, one a vine or a limb, if it's plant-based and edible, it can be given. Fire produces..."

I stopped. Blinked. Carefully put my needled down. And then smacked my forehead.

"What, what?" Midna asked, torn between concern and laughter.

"The Fire Medallion," I sighed a little, shaking my head a bit, "produce fire, amplifies fire spells, and... evaporates water."

She looked at me for a long minute, then burst into laughter. Given that it was well into the afternoon, I could hardly blame her. I certainly felt like a twit, but as I have said before, mortal memory is fallible, and immortal body or not, I do _not_ have an eidetic memory.

"...it's okay?" Link offered gingerly from where he was laying in the sun. "It's been... kind of crazy, so maybe this was a good thing."

"Optimist," I sighed a little,then continued to piece together the bandoleer. " _Anyways_... Water produces what you'd expect, and also whatever type. Hot spring water, salt water, fresh water, and so on. Shadow,the one we just picked up, can render a person invisible, and... I didn't have Spirit that long, so I don't remember what it does. Oh, and Light, obviously, produces light and boosts healing by a ridiculous amount, though it can't do anything about replacing blood."

"Do they work for anyone?" Midna asked, once she'd mastered her amusement.

"Theoretically," I shrugged a little. "The Hero of Time pretty much left them in my care since I was the magically experienced one and all that, but we both tended to avail ourselves of the Light Medallion at need, and the Forest Medallion came in really handy when we were... stranded, sort of, on the Hylian plains."

Link's face took on a bemused expression,as though he was struggling to recall a memory that was just barely out of reach. To distract him, I flipped Midna the Water Medallion.

"Just specify what sort of water you want. _Away_ from us and our stuff," I added as the flipped the sapphire-blue disc in her small hands.

"Pffft. Ruin my fun, why don't you?" she sighed theatrically, but obligingly went over to a corner away from our drying gear, and started playing around with the Medallion. Her gleeful giggling made me smile a little, even as I continued to work.

"Are you... going to use the Fire Medallion?" Link asked hesitantly.

"Well, I _could_ ," I said, setting the last stitch and moving onto the next small pouch. "But that would required getting _in_ to wet gear, and that's unpleasant at best. I mean, if my boots are still damp by the time everything else is dry, sure, I'll use it then, but... you're right. It is nice being out here in the sunlight."

He beamed, and flopped back onto the grass, lacing his hands behind his head. I stifled a chuckle; all he needed was a long stem of grass, and he would have looked very much the ranch hand he'd started life as.

But sundown, everything was as dry as it was going to get, and after carefully working over the swords to make sure that leather bindings were not going to stiffen and crack, now the blades come to harm, we dressed again, and what little dampness remained was whisked away by the power of the Fire Medallion.


	23. Twenty-two

Twenty-two

We stayed outside, sleeping under the light of a waning moon as crickets and other summer insects sang their summer chorus, and spent most of the morning being... I admit, it, lazy. Oh, we checked over gear, and sparred, but neither one of us made mention of the fact that we ought to go back inside and face that last medallion-carved door.

Inevitably, however, we did go back in, kitted out to the best of our abilities; from somewhere during the night, Midna had found a stash of arrows that were actually quite sound and delivered them to my quiver. The swords were sharp, and ready to be used against an enemy, my medallion bandoleer was finished and strapped across my chest, and everything was as ready as it could be.

The middle-right door threw us into the middle of a sandstorm. Memory I didn't _consciously_ remember had me reaching out and grabbing Link's wrist before the wind could separate us. His hand wrapped around mine in return, and I used my free arm to try and shield my eyes, seeking any sort of marker that might lead us to a safe place.

The sand was fine and loose, scouring my bare face and hands mercilessly and making it almost impossible to see. In any other instance, I would have considered digging into the sand for protection, and waiting it out, but I got the feeling that _this_ sandstorm wasn't going to end until we emerged from it. If then.

 _The sands will swallow you if you do not follow the flags._

A scrap of waving cloth caught my eye, attached to a tall pole; I headed straight for it, my boots sinking and shifting painfully in the slippery sand, hauling Link behind. I wasn't going to ignore sound advice, even if I couldn't precisely pin where that advice had come from. Had I _heard_ it, or remembered it? I couldn't tell, couldn't be sure...

The sandstorm turned everything a sort of uniform tan, obscuring any sort of landmarks that might exist to lead us to safety, but the flapping of the flags was _just_ motion enough that I was able to trace a straight line—more or less—from pole to pole until we reached a stone wayhouse.

I thrust the door open, and we tumbled inside, shedding sand everywhere; wrestling the door _closed_ again took what little energy I had left, and I simply flopped against the stout wood, torn between gasping breathes and spitting sand. Link was not much better; he was sprawled full out on the stone, and the sand had done the same damage to him as it had to me; scouring his face and hands raw.

"Well, that was exciting," Midna said, pulling herself out of Link's shadow with a flourish. "You need some help there?"

I had just enough energy to make a rude gesture, which she grinned at, before she floated over to the empty fireplace and started stacking wood. While Midna couldn't light the fire with _magic,_ the little Twili Princess had actually learned quite a bit about how to do things in a non-magical way. So, sooner than one might have expected, the fireplace was throwing warmth and a flickering light filled the room.

The wayhouse, even only partially revealed, wasn't terribly big. If I had to give it a size estimate, it was maybe half-again the size of my former home before the Temple of Time. One corner was curtained off, but the edges of wooden bunkbeds could be seen through gaps in the fabric. Another corner was completely enclosed; I guessed it held some sort of privy, or showering space. It was certainly big enough for the latter, though where they would get the water, I wasn't too sure. The rest of the room was open; a stout table and chairs were laid out in the middle of the room, and a kitchen-area occupied the corner farthest from the door, surrounded by cabinets.

Link made a pained sound, and rolled slightly onto his side, shedding sand everywhere. I had to agree; that had been an unpleasant start to the test, and no doubt it was only going to get worse before it got better.

"This is the point where I remind you that you could have stayed in the temple," I said wearily.

"Anxiety, or pain," he mumbled, sounding more exhausted than anything else, "tough choices..."

"It's a moot point now, anyways," Midna pointed out. "We're all here, and here we stay until we figure out how this challenge works."

"Unfortunately so," I said, and with a pained groan, lurched to my feet. "C'mon puppy, you'll feel a _little_ better if you get out of the gritty clothes, at least."

He groaned too, but accepted my hand when I offered, and staggered to his feet as well. He retreated, more or less, beyond the curtained area, and I used one of the chairs as a brace while I blearily stripped out of sand-wrapped gear and clothing.

For reference? Never walk in a sandstorm unless you have no other choice. Sand. Gets. _Everywhere_. And it's a pain in the ass to try and get out.

I heard a faint thump from beyond the curtains, followed quickly by a light snore, and stifled a smile to avoid causing more aches and pains. A few moments with the Light Medallion eased the pain, at least, and I managed to walk in a _mostly_ straight line to drop the thing on his chest where he was half sprawled on the bottom bunk of the closest bed.

Since there was little point in being awake, and the wind clearly hadn't faded at _all_ , I just dropped into the next bed, spared a moment to be surprised at the sturdiness of the beds and the cleanliness of the cotton-stuffed mattress, then passed out.

The wind howled through my dreams, conjuring up... oddness. I don't know if what I dreamt was truly _dreams_ , or memories, or some odd mishmash of both. Plausibly the latter, though knowing Rauru devised these tests, and knowing as well that Rauru was about as close to being an all-seeing god as anyone...

Well.

The fire was still going quite cheerfully, and Midna was sitting.. floating, rather, before it, a contemplative look on her face.

"Rupee for you thoughts," I said with a slight yawn.

She jumped and flipped around in midair, pensive fading into embarrassed.

"D-don't sneak up on me like that!" she scolded.

"...but that was amusing," I said, keeping my tone innocent. "You're always popping out at us all random, how often have I _actually_ gotten the jump on you?"

She responded by sticking out her tongue, which, I admit, made me chuckle a little.

"Seriously though, what's on your mind?" I added as I moved to the wall and found thick, heavy candles waiting to be lit. "If I can startle you, it has to be big."

"I was just... thinking about how we were going to fight Zant," she admitted quietly. "And... well, my people... I mean, I was deposed, and ran away with only a plan to get vengeance! What must they think of a ruler who abandons them..."

"Well, I can say with a certainty, that you've grown up during this," I said calmly as I went around lighting the candles and shedding a more uniform light. "When we do get you back to normal, after kicking Ganondorf's ass so hard he _bounces_ , and you go back? You'll probably be pleasantly surprised."

"...I thought you _weren't_ optimistic."

"I'm not," I said wryly. "I'm being realistic. You're not the _only_ one who's grown up on this little adventure. It might remain a hard fight, but I have confidence that the Hero will prevail."

Plus a plan percolating for attempting to grab the Triforce of Power. If I _could_...

Too far ahead.

"He's gotten really strong," Midna said with a nod. "But what about you?"

"What _about_ me?" I said turning and raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's just... Oh, never mind," she said finally. "I can't articulate it just yet."

"Well, when you can, I'm curious to hear you finish that thought," I replied dryly. "Few enough people do."

"...that's probably because you're _scary_ ," she huffed.

I grinned.

"Yes, this is true. Here," and I tossed the Forest Medallions to her. "Conjure up breakfast; that storm's not going anywhere, and huddling in here isn't going to get this solved."

She nodded after a moment, and pointed the face of the medallion at the table while I found a serviceable dagger that would work for cutting up fruit, and a few other things that would work well to give us a more filling breakfast than we'd had for several days.

Midway through, Link appeared, dropped the Light Medallion gently on the table, then wobbled his half-aware way over to the closed off section of the wayhouse. Since I'd lit the candles in that room too, I knew what he'd find; a small row of wooden seats over a pit—it was deep, and plain that this place had once been used fairly often—and a semi-large showering area that hadn't been used in so long there was dust thick on the floor.

He wasn't much more awake when he came back out, but the appearance of flatcakes and strong tea—old, but not so old as to be impotent—served to wake him up as it did me.

"What do we do now?" he asked once breakfast was done with.

"Now, we wrap up the way I had you do in the desert, and see if there are more flags that show us the way to go," I replied a little grimly.

"You don't need _me_ for that," Midna said, and hastily dove into Link's shadow.

I snorted in amusement at her, then shook my head and started winding cloth around my head, building a mask that would _hopefully_ filter out the sand. A little awkwardly, Link copied me, and we both used the various straps of our gear to pin the edges of the headwraps down.

"What do we do if there's no flags?"

"...Puppy, if my guess is right, we're walking in the Desert of Illusions. If we _don't_ find any flags, we are in for a world of trouble."

"Desert of Illusions?"

"An old name for the Gerudo desert, called thus because both the magic in the sands, and the heat of the sun could make people see things," I replied, wishing briefly that I had a pair of goggles. "Look, just stay attached, and we'll do what we can."

He nodded, and firmly latched himself to my hand as I carefully opened the door.

The storm hadn't abated, but after feeling the buff and push of the winds, I realized it had lessened some, as though by getting this far, we had accomplished something. A peculiar sound could be heard over the winds, and after only a few moments of hesitation, I decided to follow it.

There was no point in discussion; even shouting, we wouldn't have heard one another over the wind.

There were no flags to follow, but the strange sound persisted, and as I followed, I began to make out strange sights that were familiar, but... not quite. It _did_ however, lead us to the edge of the sandstorm.

And, naturally, straight into more trouble.

Before us in the mid-morning sunlight was a series of broken walls, arranged like switchback steps. They led the way up to a huge statue of the Goddess of the Sands, terminating at her feet. That was my first clue that something was off.

 _Patrolling_ the walls were a variety of brown-skinned, red-haired women dressed in the _oddest_ of desert-wear; a short, close-fitting tank top that exposed both collarbone and midriff, and loose, voluminous pants that gathered at the ankle. Some wore vests over their shirt, others wore veils over the lower half of their faces, and hair styling ran the gamut of ponytails, braids, and short cuts.

I didn't recognize the clothing, but there was no mistaking their features. Even the glaives, scimitars, and shortbows spoke to me of everything that I missed.

They were Gerudo.

Fortunately, we had come out close enough to a rock outcropping that I was able to drag Link behind it before they took note of us; in the bright sunlight, we were too obvious to be ignored. He stifled a yelp at my manhandling, at least, and flopped down onto the still sands with a faintly relieved sigh.

"What now?" he asked quietly.

"...best bet is to way for nightfall," I replied, keeping my voice just as low. "I don't know how well the Shadow Medallion will work in broad daylight, and the last thing we want is to bring everyone down on our heads while we hunt for the Spirit Medallion."

He nodded a little, as I sank down cross-legged with a faint sigh; they might have only been a facile of my people, but it was a good deal like being kicked in the gut to see so _many_ of them. Carefully, I peered around our hiding place and did a quick count; there were at least three per switchback, and there were at least a _dozen_ switchbacks going up.

I had to hope that night _would_ come, and the guard would be lessened. I did _not_ want to have to slaughter my people, my sisters, in the hunt for the Spirit Medallion. It would have been, at best, a disservice to Nabooru, who was ever the greatest of us all.

Link dozed off and on as the sun inched slowly across the sky, which allowed his aching body a semblance of healing. I was much too on edge—without knowing the rules of this test, I had no way of being sure that me falling asleep wouldn't lead us into _more_ trouble. So I stayed awake, and watched them patrol.

It was a silent patrol; none of the usual banter or jokes that one would expect from a team of women who were guarding the far end of the desert. Who was there to come at them, after all? The Desert of Illusions and the semi-permanent sandstorm protected them from pretty much everyone save for other Gerudo, and being placed this far out...

Well, the only ones who regularly made this journey were the two old witches who had claimed little sisters every few years for training.

'Training.'

As the sun finally began to set, great flames shot up from the outstretched hands of the Sand Goddess, casting an imperfect orange light that danced and flared as a night breeze began to tickle it. The amount of guards grew no fewer, but at least they seemed to move a bit slower in the flickering firelight. In truth, the sight was somewhere between ominous and beautiful, especially as the sky darkened to that velvet-blue and became speckled with stars. The lack of moon was in our favor, at least...

I nudged Link awake, and we both had as quiet a meal as possible before I willed the invisibility of the Shadow Medallion to come down upon us. Invisible did not mean soundless, however, and the sand crunching under our boots had us both wincing as we tried to slide as quietly as possible to the base of the stone pathway.

And there we got a true stroke of luck; knockout powder, wrapped in neat little balls and tucked into a box just inside of the wall. It wasn't a particularly _small_ box, but when I reached in and grabbed as many as I could, Link decided that the best way to handle my desire for the items was to heft the box. Since we were too close to the first of the guardswomen, I didn't bother with trying to have a whispered conversation; I merely blessed the fact that the medallion's invisibility was not dependent on touch, and let Link carry the box so that we could safely work out way up without hurting anyone.

We actually made it about halfway before the guards at the bottom came around and raised the alarms. At which point there was little option other than to dump the content of the box and use it as a shield against the arrows that came at us. I could have kept up the invisibility, yes, but it didn't occur to me until after that it might have been simpler.

Link loaded a few of the knockout balls into his slingshot and fired upwards, hitting several Gerudo in the head and chest, and sending them sprawling. The path was narrow enough that they couldn't swarm us, at least, but by that same token, we could easily be hemmed in if we got stuck in the wrong spot. This almost happened several times, but either I managed to batter them away with the flat of my sword—or the box, it did make a good improvised melee weapon—or Link and the knockout balls came to the rescue.

We reached the top just as the sky began to lighten with dawn, and encountered the next problem; there had, at one point, been a bridge connecting this wall to the base of the statue. There was no such bridge now, however, and even with the Gerudo we had knocked out, there were still plenty boiling after us.

The jump looked far. Too far. But we had no other choice in the matter. I focused my gaze on where I hoped to land, backed up a bit, then managed a running jump that almost, _almost_ didn't clear the gap. Link was smarter; he saw a rock outcropping and used the clawshot to bridge the gap while I hauled myself up over the edge, and sprawled before the statue base, panting and sweating. That had been entirely _too_ close for personal comfort.

The base, fortunately, was out of range for arrows, though I will give the illusionary people credit, they certainly did _try!_ Just based on principle, I scooted away from the edge of the ledge, and further out of range of any stray arrows.

"That was exciting," I muttered, getting to my feet with only a _little_ help from the wall. "Can we not do it again?"

My hand brushed something that shifted, and I jumped back, colliding abruptly with Link as part of the wall slid down into the surrounding stone. He squawked, but managed to stay upright, and after a long moment we stepped forward to look into the opening that I had unintentionally found.

Torches lit a straight path that had a gentle upwards incline, and was only slightly dusted with particles of sand. With a shrug I stepped in; Link followed, and together we headed up the path, which eventually terminated in a large, open room. I stopped short in the entrance, one hand falling to my sword as I took in the layout... and what was at the heart of the room.

The floor remained the same dusty sandstone, save for a large circle in the middle that was actually packed earth; the walls were rough-hewn and set unevenly with either torches or lanterns that needed a good cleaning. Three of the four walls held a smaller version of the Goddess of the Sands statue we had made our way to, each with orange flames in her open palms to cast a mostly even light.

In the middle of the room, the center of the practice circle, was a lone Iron Knuckle. It was tall, probably close to eight feet, and held a battle-axe between its hands the head or which rested on the floor. The metal plate it wore looked as shiny as if it had been freshly made, and a large plume—like a demented ponytail—topped the helmet.

"...what _is_ it?" Link asked.

"Iron Knuckle. Look, you stay out of this one," I said abruptly. "If something _outside_ the ring attacks, by all means, but that thing is mine."

"What? But-"

"No. This one is _mine_."

He bit his lip, then nodded a little in acquiescence. That much gained, we stepped into the room, and Link let out a yip as the exit sealed up behind us.

"...well, that wasn't exactly unexpected, but that's not pleasant either," I grumbled. "All right... let's dance."

I could say it was a noble thing I was doing, trying to protect him, but it wasn't. It feels strange to admit that I just wanted this one fight to myself, knowing that I _could_ win without extra help, but that's pretty much it. It wasn't like fighting my shadow, a being that was strong, fast, and agile, as well as skilled as I. Iron Knuckles are slow, ponderous, and easy to dodge, and as long as I kept up Nayru's Love, I could easily take the occasional hit.

I had the shield spell set and ready even before I crossed into the practice circles, and boy was I ever glad I did; the eyes of the knuckle lit from within, as brilliantly orange as the flames in the hands of the goddess, and the axe lashed out with enough speed—and reach, the circle was _not_ small—to surprise me. I managed a skip to the side, at least, and realized the axe head was on some sort of retractable chain.

Even as I watched, the axe was yanked out of the dirt and back to the Knuckle, who turned with a clatter and clank, to launch the axe head at me a second time. Prepared or not, this was a faster move than I had fully anticipated, not to mention more flexible. I shook the surprise out, and dodged again, taking my sword in hand as I darted in, seeking the typical weak point of _all_ Iron Knuckles; the gem on the forehead of the faceplate.

It wasn't there.

Even without the axe head, the shaft of a battle axe can be used like a quarterstaff, and deal its own damage, especially if one puts a nasty mace head on the end. Now, my people are strong, but we're not typically _that_ strong. What this told me was that either a male Gerudo had been used—I wouldn't have ruled it out either, since no one _really_ knew what happened to the babies left to the mercy of the desert—or this was a purely magical construct.

I know, I know. Logic dictates that _all_ of it was purely magical constructs, but still. It was a very immersive test, and trying to keep track of what was real and what was not was _kind_ of pointless.

I could, dimly, hear fighting outside the ring as I danced around the Iron Knuckle, seeking weak points in the armor and also the gem that I knew _had_ to be there. A glance showed that Link was being taken on by a handful of Gerudo women, dressed in red, who wielded dual scimitar. They were being nice, at least, and only attacking him one at a time from what I could tell, but it made me wonder for a split second if I was meant to have fought them first, or would they have only kept me in the circle with the Knuckle?

It was a moot point either way, and as the axe lashed out again, digging yet another divot in the earthen floor, I put my attention firmly on my opponent. The waving plume was especially aggravating to me for some reason, so the next chance I got, I managed to nip in close and take a swipe at it.

The Iron Knuckle made a sound as a handful of strands descended to the floor, and I only just managed to get my hand between me and the axe shaft, deflecting it just _enough_ that I was only propelled across _half_ the ring instead of out of it.

It was decidedly not my most graceful landing. But the vehemence of the attack told me that I was on to something; the Knuckle kept preventing me from trying to circle around behind it—and was doing an annoyingly good job of that too—which suggested that the stone I sought was in an unconventional place.

Like, say, the _back_ of the helmet, hidden beneath the ridiculous plume.

I had to call upon my ancient Sheikah training for this, as well as every single trick I had learned as part of the Gerudo tribe. While I couldn't break the axe—if it crashing into the ground wasn't going to heavily damage it, nothing _I_ could do would—and the chain wouldn't tangle, I could still use those moments where the axe was embedded in the ground to get a running start and dive _around_ the Knuckle. I turned it into a spinning jump-strike, and was rewarded with the sound of my sword striking something that shattered like glass.

The Iron Knuckle froze, then collapsed forward, the metal rapidly corroding away to reveal a key. Link yelped, catching my attention as I knelt to pick up the key, and I saw that his enemies, one by one, were poofing away into piles of sand.

"Relax, hero," I said dryly as he stared with wide eyes. "It's done and over with. At least in here, anyways. Just have to fins the door this fits..."

Easier said than done in a room this size. We searched as much of it as we could, eventually returning to the middle of the room and the practice ring in a mix of concern—Link—and irritation—me. The walls, rough-hewn or not, had been bare of holes. Same with the statues. The floor hadn't shifted anywhere that I could see _or_ feel, and the entrance was still blocked up.

"There's a way out," I sighed, flopping down in the dirt, key in hand. "There's _always_ a way out..."

"Maybe if we climbed up the walls?" Link suggested, scuffing his feet in an bsnet manner in the dirt where the knuckle had stood.

"With what? It's not shale, but sandstone isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to climb. We have no ropes either, nor guidelines. No, climbing doesn't make _sense_..."

Link frowned a little pensively, then nodded in agreement. His next scuff of boot was abruptly halted by something that clinked, and he yelped in surprise, almost falling over. I blinked, torn between amusement an annoyance, then glanced at what he'd kicked.

Half buried in the dirt was a padlock, attached to a rusty-looking chain.

"Puppy, if we weren't both still covered in sand, I would be tempted to kiss you," I informed him.

Link blushed, and I tugged the lock up to better insert the key. The whole contraption shattered into dust when the lock was undone, and the sparring ring rumbled slightly as a pillar slowly worked its way up from the depths.

And on that pillar was a neat little wooden box that held the Spirit Medallion... and several _dozen_ tomes of magic. I stuck the medallion in its new home on my bandoleer, then carefully, reverently, lifted the first book from the box.

In a flicker of light, I was once more back among the Chamber of Sages, but t was no longer empty.

"We reached across time and space to give you these," Nabooru said with a wry grin. "Don't waste them, girl."

"These tomes are full of magics that only one with great power and skill can utilize," Impa added gravely.

"But there are also some basic primers of magical knowledge," Rauru finished. "For someday, you will succeed, and they will be needed again."

"You'll get this, Rai," Ruto said, beaming. "I know you will!"

"Yes. Be brave and strong, Sister," Darunia said, inclining his head. "While we do not know when, we can say with certainty that we have faith in your skills."

"And even though we're not part of the same world, _we_ remember you," Saria finished. "We're always with you. No matter what."

Like Rauru's last message, it was a message only... but the smiling, _proud_ faces of the Sages, or my friends...

I bowed my head, and when I lifted it again, Link,myself, and the box of books were all back in the Temple of Time. Sternly forbidding myself to cry, I set the book back in the box, then took the box and put it in the chest where the map and Light Medallion had resided for so long.

"Are you... okay?" Link asked.

"Yes. I'm fine. But we can't take these with us now. I'll study them more later, and this place will keep them safe until I need them again," I replied, then dusted my hands off after closing the lid, and got to my feet again. "How're you feeling? Ready to tackle the last door, or need a break?"

"...short break? I could use a nap..."

"Fair enough."


	24. Twenty-three

Twenty-three

Link rested easily enough, dropping into sleep as soon as he was wrapped in his blankets, but I was not so tired. My mind kept returning to dwell on the words my ancient, almost-forgotten friends had passed to me. Through time,through another world... I found myself caught up in question after question, knowing there would _be_ no answers until I could borrow Zelda's Triforce piece. Rauru was gone, after all, and I had no way of reaching across time or worlds to ask them directly, nor any guarantee that they would be around to answer.

Still, I ran my fingers absently along the front of the bandoleer, feeling the six Sage Medallions, and allowed the memory of them to comfort me, imperfect though it was. It wasn't the first time I had stayed up all night caught up in my thoughts; with Link asleep, and Midna keeping to herself, I was actually allowed a modicum of peace.

I admit, after spending so much time alone, being part of a team wears on me. Especially when they become dear to me, as she had, and he was.

I thought for long hours on the books; what I should do with them, where I should store them once the current crisis was over. The safest place, of course, was to leave them in the Temple where not even time itself could touch them, but I have gone back and forth on that decision in recent years. It hasn't _changed_ yet, but I still debate.

Eventually Link woke, we took care of the necessities, and looked to the last door.

It was much less elaborate than the others had been, and opened easily enough with a touch, revealing stairs that spiraled up. In hindsight, we probably could have done this door first, and I could have come _back_ to my trials at a later date... or I could have tried harder to convince Link and Midna to tackle the temple itself while I handled the trials without them...

Ah well.

The map finally proved its worth by leading us through a short, fitful maze that terminated in a large, round room the had late-afternoon sunlight shining in through the iron grill of the windows and a gap in the ceiling overhead. A bell, raised to reveal a metal transfer-platform beneath was at the forefront of the room, and at the far end, before one of the windows, was the statue we had sought. Underneath was a small treasure room; three chests, and a small pile of weaponry that would be useful... save for the bars that blocked the way.

And naturally, between us and it was a suit of armor.

"...is that another one of those Iron Knuckles?" Link asked.

"No," I said after a moment, studying it. "This one's more annoying. It's called a darknut."

"Dark... nut?"

"Don't look at me, I didn't name the damn thing," I sighed. "It's a pure-magic construct; Zelda's got some in her castle but they typically only work if they've been given the priming word."

"How do we know if it's been given the word?" Link asked uneasily.

As if it had heard him, the damn thing lifted it's sword and turned around. Slow or not, the sword zipped through the air before it settled into a defensive stance, round shield raised protectively.

"...like that."

"Oops..."

I sighed again.

"Okay, focus on cutting armor straps," I said, pulling out my sword. "This thing is like an Iron Knuckle in that it moves slow, but unfortunately, its weak point is inside the armor. So we have to get it off."

"And then what?" Link asked nervously.

"...well, then we see just how fast it is without the armor, and kill it," I replied with a shrug.

"Oh boy..."

Slow and steady, the darknut advanced on us; Link lifted his own shield in response, and stepped up to attack the thing head on while I darted in and out, nipping a strap here and there. It made me wish for shorter blades; even a long knife would have been better for this work than a sword, but I made do with what I had, and when the last piece of heavy plate came of, we both jumped back to reassess the foe.

The heavy sword went flying at Link who jumped to the side, panting a little for breath, and a newer, thinner blade was drawn to match with the faster movements of the darknut now that the heavy armor was removed. And yes, the thing was certainly fast... but it was not fast enough, and now that it carried no shield, it was not capable of blocking attacks that came from both sides.

A few swift, consecutive hits was all it took to make the thing stagger back, clutching at places that leaked a dark mist in place of blood. I tensed as the sword was lifted again, then let out a slow breath as the sword fell with a clang, and the darknut dropped to the floor, fading out into mist and magic. Link also sighed, then glanced at me and grinned a little.

"That's a lot easier when there's two of us," he said.

"Oh hush, the Iron Knuckle would have mopped the floor with you," I said wryly.

The magic glimmered slightly, then wafted through the air to the bars that kept us from the treasure. They parted, and then the magic fully dissipated. With matching shrugs, we both went to see what there was to be found.

Two of the chests held more than a few pouches of rupees, and surprisingly recent letters of credit; how they got there was anyone's guess, but it wasn't hard to figure how the money would come in handy. A new quiver replaced my makeshift one, with only minor adjustment, and I strapped a long knife to my other hip as a precaution.

I don't like shields, to be honest. They're heavy, and easy to hide behind. Oh, they certainly come in handy, but my preference is to be on the attack, not the defensive. If I'm on the defensive, that's typically a problem.

The final chest held the item Rauru had named; the Dominion Rod. It also held a brief note on what the Dominion Rod actually _was_.

"Infuse life into statues, and they will follow and mimic your movements," I read. "The bells will teleport the statue in one direction only..."

I looked at the rod. Shrugged. And passed it to Link.

"Here. It has its own store of power, so it shouldn't be that difficult to use."

"Me?" he squeaked a little.

"Sure, why not? It's one of those things that works regardless of magical prowess or not, plus, if I wasn't here you'd need to use it anyways," I shrugged a little. "Go on, give it a swing."

He looked at it a little dubiously; the gold-green ball of magic pulsed softly at the top of the staff, very innocent and innocuous. Gingerly, without actually targeting anything, he swung the rod, and watched the ball of light zip away, then back.

"See? Easy. Now, aim up at the statue," I said dryly, "and we can actually get a move on to the heart of this nonsense."

He backed up a bit to get a decent line of sight on the statue, then did as he was instructed, and launched the ball of magic at the statue. With faint creaking and grating noises, the light infused the statue, and gave it a semblance of life. Carefully,Link backed up, and the statue followed, crashing hard to the ground. I winced, but the statue was made of sterner stuff; the dents and cracks were on the floor, not a single one marring the base of the statue.

He led it under the bell, which glowed like the statue; it lowered, rang softly, and when it raised the statue was gone, and the light faded out soon after.

Getting it back through the temple to the main room was mostly simple; the statue's great hammer cleared floors of annoying bugs, and we might have ended up smashing a gate or three on the way as well, but we did, eventually, make it all the way back, and returned the statue to its proper place as a door guard.

The large door glowed with the same light as the magic of the rod, then silently parted, allowing us, at last, into the heart of this new part of the temple.

The room we entered was dark, and poorly lit; four holes in the ceiling allowed shafts of daylight into the room, but they only lit up their immediate surroundings, leaving most of the room to shadow. I could, just _barely_ , make out four giant statues, one in each corner of the room,armed with huge hammers.

Link approached one curiously as I cast about for any sign of the mirror shard; the feel of it was pervasive, but I couldn't see it. Not even a hint. Abruptly the light over Link vanished, quickly enough to make him yelp and spin around. With a grimace I looked up, and there on the ceiling was the _largest_ spider I have ever seen.

I do not mind spiders, typically. They are small and mostly harmless, and eat many insects. As long as they don't unexpectedly drop onto me, I can ignore them.

This thing? A bit big to ignore, and it radiated the power from the mirror shard. As part of me wondered just how in the _hell_ this ha happened, the rest of me was preoccupied with getting ready to fight. The first trick we had to figure out was how to get the damn thing onto the ground where we could better handle it.

Not necessarily the wise choice; it had looked big enough on the ceiling. Once on the floor with us, the damn thing was about level with a two-story house. Link, at least, could think on his feet, and the next thing I knew there was a giant stone fist crashing down on the spider.

I will grant that the mirror shard must have passed on a sort of resilience, because goodness knows one hit from a giant stone fist should have killed it, but it took _three_. Between attempts to get it in place for another flattening, the spider either spawned _more_ spiders—annoying little things that had a painful, if non-poisonous, bite—or it lanced down with a beam of fire magic, trying to hit one of us.

The third hit _ought_ to have broken the spell, but the binding was surprisingly tight. The main body of the spider was destroyed, shattering like glass, but the heart of the spell required one last stab before it gave up and unraveled, coalescing right back into the mirror shard, which I scowled at, then sent to the Mirror Chamber with an impatient gesture.

"Are we assembling something terrible?" Midna asked. "I mean, that creature was..."

"Tainted by what has been wrapped around the mirror for centuries," I replied briskly. "The only thing we're assembling, Midna, is a doorway. It will take us to one place, and one alone, and the damage it does, is actually relatively minor. The spider was trapped in here, after all, not out in the world."

"That's... actually not so bad," Link said after a minute as Midna pondered. "I mean, Snowpeak had the yetis, but even then it was reasonably contained to the mountain, and not coming farther into Hyrule."

"And the Temple of Time, especially _this_ version of it, is so isolated that even if it had taken us a while to get here, nothing would have happened," I pointed out. "Giant spider or not, it was definitely trapped in here, with no exodus. Same with whatever's going on in the sky, I suspect."

"Speaking of the sky, how _are_ we going to get up there?" she asked.

"...I have no idea," I admitted with a shrug. "If there was still a workable Sky Cannon about, we could trust to luck, but they're all gone."

"What's a 'sky cannon?'" Link asked.

"Like Fyer's only bigger, and _much_ more powerful. Back when people communicated regularly with the Oocca, they were heavily in use, but as humans acclimatized to living on the ground again, they stopped visiting," I shuddered a little. "Not that I can blame them; why anyone would want to live in the sky is beyond me."

"...so then, we know where the last piece is, but we can't get to it?" Midna huffed a little. "Can't you just.. call it down? I mean, _you_ made it."

"I made it, yes, but this shard, and the one up there, aren't under my control. I was _lucky_ with the one in Snowpeak because Yeta hadn't spent a lot of time around it recently, so the hold it had on her was weak enough for me to break it with a show of my own power. The spider must have been absorbed and remade to defend the shard, and you can bet that wherever it is up there," and I gestured absently to the ceiling, "it's also found something to guard it.

"That _said_ , if the Sage constructs say it's up there, that means there _does_ have to be a way to reach it," I grimaced a little. "Since we don't have time to go prancing about all of Hyrule, let's go to Telma's and talk to Shad."

"Why Shad?" Link asked.

"Because outside the Royal Library, the Sorall library is the best one there is for research. Plus, his family is noted for their scholarly pursuits; young though he is, he's a historian, and with any luck, he can point us in the right direction."

"Well, then let's get moving," Midna said, and dove back into Link's shadow.

I smiled dryly at the Hero, who grinned ruefully back, and we made our way out of the temple, back to the summer sunshine of our own world and time. It was not a trip made without some reluctance—I do dearly love the Temple of Time, and miss it fiercely when I leave.

Returning to our proper time had an unwelcome effect on the Dominion Rod, which Link had decided to carry around in the quiver I had made; all the magic drained right on out of the ting, rendering it completely useless.

"What's wrong with it?" Link asked, craning his neck to try and see what had happened.

I plucked it out of the makeshift holder and ran my fingers over it as I tested it carefully.

"Magic's run out," I said with a grimace. "Naturally."

"Can you fix it?"

"If I knew the spell to charge it, sure, but just throwing magic around isn't going to help us any. Use the wrong sort, and it could very well blow up on us," I shook my head a little, then put it back. "Well, even if it's useless, we should hold onto it; Rauru wanted me to return it if at all possible. Do you want me to carry it?"

"No, I got it... it just seems weird how it lost power so suddenly."

I chuckled dryly.

"Well, it was preserved right along with the old temple, so making the transition from no time to real time probably caused that. Magic only obeys _some_ laws consistently; running out of charge at annoyingly inconvenient times tends to be one of them. Now, let's get moving; Midna, can you get us to the Market, please?"

"Coming up!" she chirped.

She dropped us neatly at the edge of town, and we headed right on in; while the chatter of the market was as loud as ever, there was a new level of low-key tension, and a lot of glances were cast towards the sealed off palace. People scurried about their business, and sometimes voices were a little _too_ loud to cover their unease.

"I feel kinda sorry for them," Link said as we moved aside to let a squad of guards go marching past.

"Hmm?"

"The people. And also the guards. I mean, they don't know what's going on at all."

"Ah. Yes. But it's better they don't, really," I said, and shook my head a little. "Individually, people are smart, intelligent, and capable of reason. In a crowd, they're a lot like the goats you used to herd. Easily panicked, and quick to run at the signs of trouble."

He snickered a little, and I smiled dryly, pleased that he had liked the comparison. It was certainly _true_ , after all.

Telma's bar was mostly deserted at this time of day, save for the few friends in the back room. A quick count proved that there were only three heads, instead of the expected four. Shad was nowhere to be seen.

After a moment of lingering in the doorway, Telma spotted us, and waved us over to the bar.

"Raiha, dear what _happened_ to your hair?"

"Huh? Oh," and I shrugged, absently fingering the short strands. "It got in the way of fire. Fire won."

She tsked at me and shook her head.

"Honestly, when are you going to stop doing dangerous things?" she huffed.

"Oh... never," and I smiled dryly. "Anyways, where's Shad?"

"Oh, he went off to Kakariko about a week ago... something about one of his pet research projects," Telma shook her head with a wry smile. "I had him deliver a letter for me, since he was going that way..."

I hid my wince of sympathy for Renado; I like Telma, don't get me wrong, but I knew Renado had loved his wife dearly, and her death had hit him very hard. He had more or less devoted himself to both the village, and to his daughter, and I doubted heavily that he would reciprocate her interest.

"Well, I guess then we're off to Kakariko," I sighed a little. "Thanks Tel."

Link brightened perceptibly at the idea, and it wasn't too hard to guess who he was thinking about. I wanted to warn him not to get _too_ excited, but at the same time, it didn't seem fair to bring him down.

"All right, let's go to Kakariko, then. Midna?"

"Happily~"

She _was_ improving with constant use of the spell. It took only a little time, and wasn't so heavy as to leave me feeling weighed down any longer. Once Link transformed back, we headed to Renado's hut, to see what, if anything, had changed.

I was surprised to see both Darbus and Gor Coron in attendance, as well as Renado. Darbus was much more serious than his father, Gor Coron, but he lifted a hand in greeting just the same when he saw us.

"Sister," he said gravely. "It has been some time since our last meeting. Who travels with you?"

"Darbus, this is my student and partner, Link. Link, this is Darbus, tribe patriarch."

Link stared up at Darbus with wide eyes, then gingerly accepted the handshake the large Goron offered. I snickered a little at the expense of both of them, then turned to the Goron elder with a raised eyebrow.

"Darbus heard that this young lady who has lost her memories was an acquaintance of yours, and thought he might help," Gor Coron said a little dryly. "I'm just here to discuss something with Renado."

I doubted the two things were separate, but since it wasn't much my business, I didn't press.

"So what's going on?" Link asked uncertainly.

"Fortune has smile upon us," Renado said with a smile. "While we have only gained pieces, we now have hope that Ilia can recover all her memories."

"Oh?" I cocked my head slightly.

"Telma's friend Shad has come to research the statue I found in the excavation of the basement. He is convinced that it will guide him on a path to the heavens."

"When... when I was rescued," Ilia put in a bit timidly, "I overheard someone talking about the rod of the heavens... Or, well,I think that's what they said?"

I spared a brief glance for the Dominion Rod, tucked into the makeshift quiver on Link's shoulder, but decided to say nothing. They were leading up to something, and it was best to hear them out, without interruption.

"I believe that if we retrace her steps, back to where she lost her memory, there will be a way to restore it," Gor Coron put in.

It made sense, even as it was a long shot; there was no guarantee that Ilia's memories would be returned, but working backwards was better than nothing at all.

"By that logic, we should start with Telma, since she was the one taking care of you before coming here, right?" I asked Ilia.

Nervously she nodded.

"I have a letter for you to give her," Renado said, albeit a bit nervously. "This details the steps we need to follow to hopefully restore Ilia's memories."

I couldn't resist a faintly sly grin at him as I took the letter.

"Not going to deliver it yourself?~"

"...it shames me to say it, but I cannot abide her company," he admitted lowly, flushing a little.

Snickering, I turned to Ilia; Link was already standing close, looking like he wanted to reassure her, but not sure how to do that without coming off as creepy. She glanced up at both of us shyly.

"I... I remember being saved from a dangerous situation by someone," she admitted. "They told me about the rod of the heavens. But I can only remember that bit, not who, or why, or where... Or even what it might mean!"

"Relax kiddo," I said, lightly resting a hand on her shoulder. "That you remember even a small bit is a good thing. It gives us a starting point, and even a direction to head in. Don't stress, don't force it. It'll come as it comes."

"You... you really think it will?" Ilia asked uncertainly.

"...let's stick with being optimistic, all right?"

I patted her shoulder lightly, then nudged Link. He jumped a little, then cautiously did the same; Ilia smiled a bit tremulously at both of us.

"I'm really sorry that a pair of complete strangers had to get involved in this," she said softly.

Link visibly flinched, and I sighed a little.

"Healing is what I do," I said simply. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out yet. Hey, Renado, Shad's still in the basement, right?"

"Ah, yes."

"Good. Link, why don't you go talk to the kids? No doubt Rusl will want a report on how they're doing. I'll go talk to Shad."

"O-okay," he nodded a little, and pulled himself together. "I'll see you in a bit, then."

As he headed out, I climbed down the ladder to Renado's basement to find the wayward scholar.

Shad was in the large room that Renado had accidentally discovered, staring at the owl statue that seemed to be embedded in the wall.

"Shad. Shaaaad. _Shad!_ "

He jumped a foot, then spun around in surprise.

"Oh... Raiha! What're you doing here?"

I snorted a little.

"I could ask you the same thing," I said tartly. "What's so interesting down here?"

"This statue," he said, his face lighting up with enthusiasm. "You know the legends and stories about the Oocca! I had thought this statue might give me some new insights!"

"Aaaannd... have you found anything?"

When Shad's father had passed away three years prior, he had left his son the keys to some ancient documents. Most of them had been only slightly interesting, but like his son, Shad's father had been greatly interested in the legends of Hylian past; how they had once lived in sky cities, not on the ground.

"This statue!" he said again, gesturing to it with his book. "I know there's other owl statues scattered around Hyrule that are similar, but this one isn't the same! Look, there on the belly, you can see the writing, can't you?"

While not necessarily _catching,_ his enthusiasm wasn't easily ignored. To be obliging, I stepped closer and inspected the ornamentation along the owl's belly.

"It's Sky Writing!' he exclaimed as I leaned back with a frown. "It must be!"

"All right, so if you know that much, what does it say?"

"Awaken us with the word that breaks the seal," he intoned. And then ruined the solemnity with an excited grin.

"Hn... Pity it doesn't give the word itself," I pointed out.

He huffed at me a little.

"It would hardly be worth the effort of researching if we found it so simply!"

"But it would make life a lot easier," I retorted, propping a hand on my hip.

"Aren't you the one who says life isn't supposed to be easy?"

"Well, I'd like it to not be a complete pain in the ass either," I sighed a little. "I'm guessing you're going to stick around until you get a clue or something?"

"Naturally!"

"All right, well, don't bother Ilia too much with your pet theories," I said dryly. "Her memory is piecemeal as it is, we don't need it getting worse."

"Do you think there _is_ a way to restore her memories?" he asked.

"Probably... why?"

"The rod of the heavens she was told about! It might provide another clue!"

I sighed, and was very glad that I had centuries of keeping a straight face. As it was, the Dominion Rod was just one more paperweight to lug around; the likelihood of it actually providing us with any sort of clue was minimal at best.

"Nice to see you empathize as well as ever," I said dryly.

"Oh, come now," he pouted a little. "Yes, all right, getting her memory back for her sake is good as well, but if she can provide me with more help, that would be..."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, scholar," I said warningly. "Do _not_ pester her."

Immediately the book came up between us; an ineffective shield, but it told me that I had won.

"All right, all right, bully," he huffed a little.

"If we do find anything of use, I'll let you know. See you."

He turned back to the statue as I walked away, and I could hear him muttering under his breath in a sulky tone of voice. I stifled a snicker as I climbed back out, and went looking for Link.


	25. Twenty-four

Twenty-four

A thought made me pause on the bridge over the gorge between the plains and Castletown, and I frowned slightly in thought.

"What?" Link asked.

"Just trying to figure out how to explain how we're getting around so fast... I'm not complaining about the convenience, since this is going to make life a lot simpler, but... You know how long it typically takes to get here from Kakariko," I said, absently worrying a hangnail. "Someone's going to notice, and probably pretty quickly at that."

"Oh..." now Link looked worried as well. "What... what should we do?"

"I'm not sure. I admit, I like the usefulness of it, and I'd really rather not take a lot of time on this, now that it feels we're on the downward side of things." After a moment I sighed. "Well, I suppose I can just be mysterious about it. They're used to that, at least. Come on, we've got a letter to deliver."

"You... you're sure?"

"Well, it's the most straightforward option other than outright saying magic," I said dryly. "Though I suppose no one would really believe that either."

I heard Midna snicker, and Link, though uncertain, nodded.

We threaded our way quickly back through the early evening crowd to Telma, who looked surprised to see us again so soon. Link smiled shyly, then scooted off to talk to Rusl; it wasn't hard to guess that he found Telma intimidating, and he didn't want to suffer the inevitable disappointment.

"Not going to see Shad yet?" she asked, smiling wryly.

"Been and back," I replied blithely. "Got something for you."

"Oh really?~"

"Yup. Letter from Renado.

I passed over the envelope; Telma made a gleeful noise as she opened it and read. I did my best to keep a straight face as her expression went from eager and delighted to thoughtful, and then finally annoyed.

"All this writing and he doesn't bother to mention a thing about me?" She tsked. "Honey, now that's what I call just plain _rude_. Well, I suppose there's no accounting for male foolishness, and it _is_ good to know more about Ilia's situation. I'm happy to lend a hand!"

"Great. So, what else can you tell me?"

"Well, the first person to bring Ilia here was that fool of a doctor," She frowned a little, tapping her nails lightly on the bar. "But getting him to talk about her is probably an exercise in futility without some help."

"What sort of help?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why, the tab-paying kind, of course," she said with a sly grin. "He's run up quite the bill here, and hasn't bothered to pay it. So why don't you take him this invoice, and see how well it works?~"

I blinked, then snorted a little as she proffered a piece of paper.

"You are a devious woman. All right, let me... he owes _how_ much?"

"See?" And Telma grinned a bit smugly. "Put that in his face, and let him think you're coming to collect; he'll be more than _happy_ to talk about the girl instead of the debt he owes me."

I shook my head a little.

"Clearly, you have been around me too long," I said dryly.

She laughed a little, and waved me on.

I thought about leaving Link to talk to Rusl, but Ilia was _his_ friend, and it wouldn't have been fair to cut him out of the investigation, so I waited until he was finished before catching his attention and motioning that it was time to go. He nodded, and quickly caught up as I headed out of the room, sparing a moment to stroke Louise before leaving.

"So, where now?"

"Now we go visit the old grumpy doctor and give him this," I said,proffering the invoice.

Link caught it up, and his eyes went wide.

"That's..."

"Yup," I nodded a little. "Given that he's not exactly the most popular person in the city for treating injuries, he doesn't make as much as he wants, but he certainly runs up a tab like no one's business. Telma thinks if we wave this in his face, he'll be more than willing to talk about Ilia instead of how he's going to pay."

He shook his head after a minute, his expression somewhere between awed and appalled. I smirked a little, and took the invoice back, folding it neatly and tucking it into an inner pocket of my tunic.

The doctor's place of business was really more of a small, shabby warehouse, reeking of medicines and things left improperly sealed. At the sound of the door, the old man hobbled out and gave the both of us a once over from his stooped height and thick glasses.

"Ah, I see it's the pair that so nobly helped the Zora lad, for nary a single rupee," he said, somewhere between sly and irritated. "Just what is it you need? Physicals? You have money, right? Or perhaps the young lady would like to trade... tips with an old codger?" There was a pause. "...speaking of young ladies, that girl Ilia didn't happen to say anything about me, did she?"

I glanced at Link, who had gone still and was now staring very hard at the old doctor.

"Actually, we're here to give you this," I said, stepping forward to hand over the invoice.

To my silent pleasure, the doctor lost quite a bit of color and staggered back, dropping the paper onto the ground.

"Geh! Are you trying to give an old man a heart attack?!" he demanded. "L-Look, I can't pay this off just yet! Telma's plainly hired you both to strong-arm me, but it, she... she has to wait! If I had been able to sell off that small statue the girl had, I'd have the money, but someone stole it from me!"

"Stole it from you?" I asked, bending down to retrieve the invoice. "Really?"

"I spilled some medicine on it, and that made it reek! Well, no one will buy something that smells so terribly, so I put it on the balcony upstairs to dry out, and someone stole it from there!" he squawked indignantly. "Who goes around stealing people's things like that, I ask you? What a world! You always have to be on your guard, eh?"

Unimpressed, I raised an eyebrow, and stared him down. Link was scowling, just a little, unintentionally playing the silent heavy, which was really quite amusing.

"E-either way, neither the money, nor the carving are here, so I can't repay you!" He huffed, trying to sound indignant and just sounding petulant instead. "Now, if you don't mind, I have work to get back to!"

The doctor shuffled back into one of the small rooms and pointedly yanked the curtain across the doorway to block us out. I snickered a little, then nudged Link and jerked my head slightly to indicate he should follow me.

"He keeps the medicines in the back," I murmured, "and we might get lucky enough to find a lingering scent. It can't have been too long since he had it."

"You want me to try and track it?" he asked, turning from irritated to eager in a matter of moments.

"If you can, yes. He doesn't do _many_ medicines, so it shouldn't be that hard to find out which one is the one we need..."

"What if he comes out?" Link asked, suddenly worried.

"He probably won't, not until he hears us leave," I replied with a smirk. "Because we're reminders that he owes a debt. Still, if we actually track the statue from the smell of the medicine, maybe I'll pay some of his tab for him. Maybe..."

Link snorted a little, then triggered the transformation to wolf; Midna refrained from jumping on his back, though she did emerge from his shadow to witness what was going on.

It wasn't hard to find where the medicine had spilled; along with only making a few medicines, the doctor was notoriously terrible at cleaning up. To be _fair_ , he was an old codger, who probably ought to have been retired, and it did help us. Link sneezed several times as he snuffled around the medicine scent, then looked up at me with a firm nod.

"All right then. Lead the way."

Midna dove back into my shadow this time, and we headed out of the doctor's office into the waning daylight. At least with fewer people on the street there were fewer people to frighten, but there were still plenty who saw Link in his wolf shape and panicked, despite the fact that I was walking calmly alongside, and he offered no threat to anyone.

I have to admit, watching people scatter before someone so harmless is kind of funny.

The trail led back to Telma's, to my surprise, but not into the bar itself. Link's tail wagged as he saw Louise out in the courtyard; when the cat glanced at him, I decided to stay back and just watch. Animals can speak with other animals, after all, and while I could have shifted to the sand cat—I did consider it—I decided to stay as I was and just rest until they were done talking.

When they were finished, Louise patted Link's nose lightly with her paw, then padded back to the door to be let into the bar. Link trotted over to me and changed back with a faint sigh.

"So?"

"So, Louise took the statue, but then it got taken from her by some skeletal dog things," Link said, pulling off his hat to run his fingers through his hair. "She said they're around at night, in a big pack, outside the southern gate, and that to get it back, we were going to have to thrash all of them."

"Ah. Stalhounds," I sighed a little. "Well, better they take the statue than the cat; Telma would be _very_ upset if anything happened to Louise. And they're not too difficult to shatter..."

"So we go and wait for nightfall outside the southern gate?"

"Precisely," I said with a nod, getting to my feet. "Let's get to it then. It's almost twilight as it is."

He nodded, and we quickly made for the southern gate, fortunately not too far from the bar. It was considered the 'official' gate into the city, so there was much landscaping done before it, and impressive stonework, some of which had banners hanging down. At the foot of the steps, the stone was worn away into the packed earth road again, and it was there we waited as the sun descended beyond the mountains, draping the world in a soft darkness.

The first stalhound didn't poke its nose above the earth for several long minutes, but when it did, it was rapidly followed by another dozen of the beasts.

"...um, Raiha?"

"Yes?"

"How _do_ we beat them?"

I smirked, then handed him the Water Medallion before conjuring flames into my palms."

"...oh."

"If I accidentally start some fires, that will come in handy. Now. Let's deal with some wayward pups, shall we?"

Yes, I was annoyed; I liked Ilia, to be fair, but this felt like a side-trip that possibly could have waited until _after_ everything was dealt with. Naturally, my wants did not supersede the reality of the situation... and in the end it _was_ necessary to handle things this way, but it was still an irritant to me.

And of course, undead things burn quickly. Link obligingly doused everything down once they were all taken out, and we sorted through the remains until he let out a yip of triumph, and pulled a statue out from one of the stalhound's innards.

It was hard to make out the details in the moonlight, but I knew the symbol that topped the little wooden statue, and it took a great deal of control to not immediately snatch it away from him. A Sheikah eye was prominently carved, and a myriad of other Sheikah symbols.

"...we have to take this to her now," I said softly.

"But it's late, and-"

" _Now_ , hero," I said emphatically.

"...why?"

"Because this?" and I gently took the carving from him, trying to hide the fact that my hands were trembling with suppressed emotion. "This came from a people that are dead and gone. Or they _should_ be. And not the sort of should that is they _have_ to be dead, it's the sort of should where they dwindled and died out, and if there's a _survivor_..."

If there were still Sheikah out there, somewhere...

I know now that only old Impaz was left, and she has recently joined the last of her kin, but the idea that there might still be a community of Sheikah... At the time, the thought was electrifying. How they could have changed, how they could have made something more of themselves than just shadowy bodyguards for the Royal Family...

"I have to know."

Link bit his lip uncertainly, and hesitated for a long minute, emotions flickering across his face that I mostly ignored as I held the little statue.

"This is a token of friendship," I said quietly. "I haven't seen one in a long time. Not since I last saw the few remaining members of the Sheikah people. I _owe_ them, Link. I owe them a debt that I can never possibly repay. Please. If there's someone, _anyone,_ still around."

"Do... Do you think...?"

"She was rescued by the person who gave this to her," I said firmly. "Your Ilia wouldn't just take something, right?"

"Right!"

"So that stands to reason that this might well jar something loose that she's been suppressing."

That seemed to decide him, and swiftly we were whisked through the night to Kakariko. I didn't wait for Link to change back—he could catch up soon enough—I was eager to hear how Ilia had received this little statue.

Fortunately, it was not so late that everyone was asleep, though they seemed startled to see us again so quickly. Ilia practically jumped a foot when I thrust the carving under her nose.

"W-what is this?" she asked, taking it from me.

"You tell me," I said firmly.

She looked down at it, and her eyes went wide. The statue dropped from her hands and I caught it before it could hit the floor, passing it to Renado as Ilia clutched her head, suddenly very pale. Link anxiously moved up to her side, though he hesitated to touch her.

"I... I remember something," she stammered. "I... I was confined somewhere. Yes. And I was saved by the person who was confined with me. When they.. helped me get free, they gave me the statue."

She jolted and suddenly jerked upright, just barely missing clobbering Link with her head.

"That's right! But... but that means that person is still in trouble!" Her excitement became frustration. "Oh, what is _wrong_ with me?! Why can't I remember where that is?!"

"I remember!" Gor Coron said abruptly. "Lady Raiha, isn't that..?"

I nodded briefly, though everyone else looked both startled and befuddled.

"A long time ago, there was a tribe of people who were the guardians of the Royal Family," Gor Coron elaborated. "They lived in a secret place, hidden among the mountains, and very few people actually ever met one."

"Or if they did, they soon died," I put in dryly. "Unfortunately, they were not really meant to deal with the prolonged wars, and they dwindled into nonexistent a few centuries ago."

"Yes," he said with a grave nod. "Lady Raiha can lead you there, can you not?"

"I can, but there's a rockslide blocking the way in," I said with a frown.

Ilia's hopeful look faded, and she glanced down.

"Oh, do not worry, little human," Gor Coron said with a chuckle. "What would be a trial for you is no hardship for we Gorons."

He turned, and nodded to Darbus, who nodded back with a grunt of agreement, then stomped his way out the door,shutting it heavily behind him. Renado winced a little as dust was shaken from the rafters, but Gor Coron seemed pleased.

"Darbus will go ahead and start working to clear the slide," he said. "No doubt he will be mostly finished by the time you get there!"

"Thank you, Gor Coron," I said with a faintly relieved sigh. "Right, there's not much we can do now, except get some sleep. Yeah?"

Renado nodded a little, and rested a comforting hand on Ilia's shoulder.

"Darbus is a powerful Goron, and should clear the slide easily enough," he said with a faintly encouraging smile. "And with Lady Raiha and Link the situation should be safely handled."

I nodded, and grinned a little when Ilia glanced at me.

"He's right. We've got this. If your rescuer is still there, then we're golden."

Link, not really knowing what to say, just patted Ilia's other shoulder comfortingly. After a moment she let out a long breath, and managed a shy, still somewhat anxious smile.

We left quickly the following morning, walking out of the village like we were going to catch up on foot, and then warped to Eldin Bridge to cut our travel time. I wasn't too worried about beating Darbus there; a Goron roll is faster than any human's walking speed, let alone a horse at full gallop. And again, Gorons are somewhat _bizarre_ beings; they need little sleep, don't necessarily need to _breathe_ , and eat rocks.

I do love them for all their strangeness.

The canyon beyond was packed with bulbin archers, and we spent a good ten hours dodging arrows. The sun was just starting to descend as we finally made it to the tunnel that lead to the Sheikah hidden village, and I was somewhere between anxious and excited; were there _people_ beyond this rock wall, or would we just find a ghost town, the last already gone?

The tunnel was mostly cleared when we reached it, Darbus having plainly been hard at work ever since he'd arrived. With one final, mighty punch the rocks that blocked the pathway were launched out the end of the tunnel, and Darbus dusted his hands off proudly.

"There is the hidden village, Sister," he said. "But I would tread warily; those little monsters that were on the way here, I suspect they are within the village as well."

"...I wouldn't be shocked," I replied, peering out into the growing gloom. "Well, we'll just have to inform them of the futility of settling into this place, won't we, Link?"

"Right," he nodded firmly.

"Since you are prepared, and strong enough, I will return to Kakariko," Darbus said. "Fight well!"

And her curled into a ball, and rolled back along the path. Link blinked, and pointed after in some mild shock.

"I know, it looks a bit silly when he does it," I said with a shrug. "But it's the fastest way for a Goron to travel."

"...just when I think I'm getting used to stuff," Link mumbled, shaking his head.

I snickered a little at his expense, then pulled my bow out and caught up an arrow.

"Let's go inform these bastards that they walked into the wrong town, shall we?"

His face settled into familiar lines of determination, and he drew his sword with a nod.

We split up to cover the village, Link taking all the bulbin we found on the ground while I shot anyone who decided that roofs or balconies meant safety. The buildings were run down, with broken glass and boards covering what was left of the windows; lucky for us, not so much for the bulbin. The only house in decent repair was the one at the farthest point from the entrance, which had a small garden that had somehow managed to avoid being ruined.

When the last of the bulbin fell, and silence once more had the run of the village, that well-kept door opened, and out walked a short, white-haired old woman.

My heart sank; _she_ was all that was left of the people who had trained me? This tired old woman and... I blinked as cats seemed to stream out of the house. _Lots_ of cats. Despite my disappointment, I had to smile. I've always had a soft spot for cats... Disappointed or not, this old woman plainly loved them as well, to bring them inside and keep them safe from the roaming bulbin.

And she had rescued Ilia. Even old, she still had Sheikah skills, and no matter how rusty, they had to have been used to get Ilia to safety.. Sheikah have always been shadow-walkers, more spy and bodyguard than front-line fighter, and really, was it fair of me to be sad about this woman being the only survivor?

I shook off the melancholy abruptly; I had no right to judge here. I had thought them _all_ dead. Just one alive, somehow, was a gift.

"Did the two of you come to rescue me?" she asked. "Please forgive me for not opening up the door!"

"No, it's all right," I said gently. "With all the bulbin around, it's more sensible to stay indoors..."

Several cats meandered my way and twined around me, purring quite loudly. One industrious kitten even hooked her way up to my shoulder, and stuck her nose in my ear. Link did not escape their attention either, and he seemed quite happy to crouch down and pet the ones who purred at his feet.

"My name is Impaz," the old woman said after a smiling moment. "I am the last human survivor of this lonely village. I was named after a great leader of ours, who built this village after opening Kakariko to everyone... Unfortunately, it fell into decline, and then those creatures tried to take it over. It's been a terrible time..."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I should have known..."

Impaz seemed to study me thoughtfully for a long moment, a slow recognition creeping over her face. While I admit to being hard to embarrass, it's not impossible, and the look of awe that stole across her expression made me glance away.

I have done many things in my long life... but I am proud only of a few. I am not comfortable with people thinking of me as a heroine. I am not. Heroes and heroines do things because they are the Right Thing To Do. I do things because I have no choice, or because I know that later it will come back to bite me in the ass.

Fortunately for my comfort, she then turned and scrutinized Link.

"Are you... would your name be Link?" she asked tentatively.

He blinked, then nodded.

"Ah, I hoped so!" She looked, when I glanced back again, very anxious. "Then, did you save that nice girl?"

Link nodded again, for who else could Impaz mean other than Ilia? The relief was palpable, and a wide smile blossomed on the old woman's face.

"How wonderful. When she was here with me, she often tried to cheer me up by saying how you would come to help. Such a sweet girl... even as I helped her escape, she worried over me."

"Why didn't you come too?" Link asked,uncertainty in his face.

"Alas, by royal order, I am not allowed to leave this place until a certain person arrives... no matter what horrible fate is visited upon it."

I grimaced a little; that didn't sound like a Zelda order, which meant it must have been made by a past king. Given that Sheikah are as mortal as any other Hylian, it was doubtful that the order had been given directly to her, and was more likely to be an order from centuries past, and was a blanket order for at least _one_ of the shadowfolk.

Impaz, being the last, was the only one who could obey it now.

"Oh, but listen to me blather on!" she exclaimed, chuckling a little. "I have a favor to ask of you, if that's all right? Could you please get this charm back to her? She seemed to always keep it close to her heart, but she didn't hesitate to give it up in order to protect me."

And from a pouch on her belt she pulled a small necklace, with a horse-shoe shaped wooden whistle hanging from it. Link took it and looked at it with hope in his eyes.

"I believe that it's kept me safe this whole time... and I would like you to please return it to her, with my thanks."

"We will," Link said with a firm nod, standing up. "And... thank you. Thank you so very much."

He turned, plainly eager to leave, and Impaz gave a start.

"That rod?!" she exclaimed. "Lad, that rod, may I see it?"

Link stopped short, and blinked. To spare him the confusion, I reached out and plucked the Dominion Rod from it's holder, and offered it to her.

"Ohhhh..." she breathed, studying it but not taking it. "This is the Dominion Rod, isn't it?"

"It is," I nodded.

"You two... are you messengers to the heavens then?"

Now it was my turn to blink in startled surprise.

"...yes?" I offered after a moment.

"Among my tribe, there were many legends," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "A story still lingers of a time when the Oocca people and the Royal Family were still in close contact. It was only meant to be carried when they needed to communicate with the Oocca people."

I frowned a little, thinking hard; I didn't remember this, but then, by the time I had connected again with the royal family, contact with the Oocca people had long since been dropped. And if Rauru, drifting across time as he did, had requested it from a royal family after that contact had been lost, well, it only made sense that I wouldn't have known about it.

Impa didn't tell me _everything,_ after all.

"For generations, my people guarded a book that, by royal decree, must be given to the messenger to the heavens," she continued. "Wait here a moment, I must find it for you."

For an old woman, Impaz could move fairly fast when she wanted to. She hurried into her house, leaving the door standing open while Link and I shared a startled glance.

"Of all the things I expected, this was definitely not one of them," I admitted lowly as the sound of rummaging came out to us.

"At least you expected something?" Link offered after a minute. "I didn't know what to think at all!"

I snorted a little, and shook my head, then put the Dominion Rod back into the holder. The cats still crowded around, seeking attention, so we played with them for a little while until Impaz re-emerged, looking triumphant, with an ancient book held reverently in her hands.

"Lady, here is the book," she said, holding it out to me. "This is written in the ancient Sky language; I devoutly hope that it proves useful to you..."

I took the book with care for the ancient bindings and weathered pages; the preservation spell was almost entirely worn out, and I wanted it to remain in one piece as long as possible until I could renew them.

"I'm so _glad_ I stayed here now," she said with a relieved sigh. "If I had not met that girl, I would not have met you two as well! It must have been mandated by the goddesses, so that I could remain to pass on this knowledge."

I kept a very straight face; while the three great goddesses are most certainly _real_ , they have no concept of time. By their very natures, they are outside of it. This was nothing more than sheer luck and happenstance, albeit in our favor.

"What will you do now?" I asked, carefully putting the book away in one of my pouches.

"Oh, I am an old woman," she said with a smile. "And though this place is lonely, I love it very much."

"I see..."

It was a sad feeling, really, knowing that she would not leave this empty, desolate place, but after a minute I smiled mentally; I could not make her leave, but I could get help for her, to make her last years as comfortable as possible.

"When you see the girl again, please tell her thank you," Impaz said.

"We will," I said with a nod. "And I'll come back later to see how you're doing, if that's all right?"

"I would like that, yes," and now she nodded.

"Me too?" Link asked.

"And you, of course, lad," she chuckled a little. "I would be very happy for visitors."

He beamed, clearly liking the idea as well. I shook my head with a faint smile, and we headed out as Impaz turned to look over her garden.


	26. Twenty-five

Twenty-five

Midna warped us back to Kakariko without needing to be asked, and we took a moment at the edge of the village to briefly reorient.

"Okay, you give Ilia the charm, I'll go and talk to Shad," I said after a moment.

"You don't want to see if it helps?" he asked, somewhere between downcast and surprised.

"I'm fairly sure it will," I said with a faint shrug, "but this book can get us to the last piece we need, so that takes priority for me at the moment. Besides, You're the important person in her life. I'm legitimately the stranger, so my presence will probably just be an intrusion. When you're done, come get me."

He nodded a little, uncertain but plainly game, and we walked into Renado's together, haloed briefly by the light of the setting sun. Darbus was not in attendance, so I presumed he'd gone straight back to Death Mountain instead of returning to Renado's, but both the shaman and the Goron elder were still there. I nodded in as friendly a manner as I could, pulled the Dominion Rod from Link's back, just in case, and descended into the basement to talk to Shad.

Shad had set up a small table, and piled it with books and papers, though at the moment he was frowning deeply at the owl statue.

"Shad. Shad..." I waited another moment, then lightly smacked the scholar on the shoulder. " _Shad_."

He jumped about a foot, then turned, flustered.

"Wh-what?!"

"Present."

He blinked, as I pulled out the book of Sky Writing and handed it to him. His eyes went _very_ wide, and he turned the pages delicately. A scholar always knows the importance of ancient books, and I knew I wouldn't have to warn him to be careful with it.

"Where did you get this?" he breathed.

"Ilia's rescuer. I can't read it, but I figured you could. Is there anything in there about how to get up to one of the Oocca cities?"

"Let me see..."

It wasn't a very thick book, but translating from one language to another can take time. So I waited patiently while he took it over to his desk and not only read it, but copied it down onto several sheets of paper he had.

"Nothing about getting up, I'm afraid," he said after a while. "But... if I may hazard a guess, this seems more like it's a spellbook than a guide."

"Really?"

"You didn't read it for yourself?"

"I can't read Sky Writing, Shad," I replied, coming over to peer over his shoulder at his neat copies. "Ancient Hylian, Gelda, Gerudo, sure. Not this. This was out of use way before I ever could have learned it. What makes you think it's a spell book?"

"Just.. a hunch, really," he admitted a touch sheepishly.

"Well, you usually have good instincts on stuff like this," I nodded a little. "Want me to try reading it?"

"Yes. Here, I'll write down the pronunciations..."

I set the Rod down on the table and picked up the paper he offered me.

"Dominion Rod," I said briefly. "Don't touch. I need to give it back at some point."

"Is it why you're interested in the heavens?" he asked, studying it curiously.

"Partially. But it's dead now; magic ran out. Not useful for much at all."I shrugged a little, reading the words carefully. "All right, here goes."

I moved over to the owl statue, and Shad eagerly followed behind, half-vibrating with excitement. The words felt strange, almost heavy on my tongue as I read slowly, with as much precision as I could.

I _felt_ something happen. Almost like a person snapping their fingers, followed by the faintest of drawing sensations, as though something nearby was pulling in... what little ambient magic there was. But the owl statue didn't change, and after a long moment, Shad drooped disconsolately.

"...perhaps it doesn't affect _this_ statue, but there are others," he said after a moment. "Maybe the word will do something for them."

"Others?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Haven't you seen them before? They don't have that strange plug in their bellies, but otherwise, they're all identical. I've made the rounds of them so often that I have their positions memorized... even the one that made it out to the desert, though I dearly would love another way in... They're all marked down on my map, over there on the wall."

I walked over to it, and studied the map with a faint frown, then pulled out my own and copied the placement markers. They were scattered across Hyrule, all right, a journey to check even the nearest would take a day at the very least.

"Here,you take the book for now," he said, picking it up from the pile on his table. "It will be safest with you while I go about and see if that word does work on the others."

He picked up the book and handed it back to me with a sigh.

"Hang on a second," I said, putting the book away. "That'll take you months. Shad, as much as I know you'd like to test this yourself, I don't _have_ months to spend on experiments and tests."

"Well, what would you recommend?" he asked, a little snappishly.

"Let me and Link do it," I replied.

"I beg your pardon? Won't it take you the same amount of time?"

"No. I've recently hit a bit of luck and can travel a lot faster. Or did you lose track of time down here?" I said dryly. "We'll go around and see if anything happens with the word and the statue, and report back to you about it."

He thought for a moment, then sighed a little.

"You could, of course, just order me to stay," he grumbled a little.

"A smart person knows when an order won't be heeded," I retorted, frowning a little. "And please don't bring that up, it's not relevant to the moment. I am _asking_ because I can do this faster, and time is of the essence in what I'm working on. You're the only person I know of that can read this writing, so I need you to stay in a place where I can find you."

"Then you think there _is_ something to all this. Why not let me come with you?"

"Because my method of travel isn't open to just anyone. Right now, it's just Link and myself, and I don't want to experiment on anyone else, in case it's fatal."

That got him. Shad swallowed a little, then nodded.

"All right," he said reluctantly. "You follow my map, and get back as soon as you can with any news."

I knew he was disappointed, and lightly patted his shoulder.

"I might have to return the Rod, but if I can, I'll give you the book, okay?"

The helped some, and he nodded again, then pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"I'll go get you some things, in case you take longer than you are assuming," he said.

"Thanks, Shad. I appreciate this."

A third nod, and then he headed for the ladder up and out of the basement, and I turned to pull the map off the wall.

"That went well," Midna opined, popping out of my shadow. "But what did he mean by order?"

I grimaced a little, carefully working the nails out of the earth.

"His estate and his lands are here in Eldin Province. That makes him one of my liegemen, since I'm its duchess."

The silence was almost deafening in her surprise. I did my best not to grin; while I do not always _like_ remembering that I am the voice of Eldin Province, every now and again the information has cause to amuse me to no end.

"You're _nobility_?" she squeaked.

"I have a title, and lands," I replied, absently tucking the map under my arm. "So...ah!"

The snapping feeling had repeated itself, much louder this time, and from the table, a green-gold glow sprang up.

"So _that's_ what it was for!"

I moved quickly over to the table, Midna trailing along behind, and lifted the rod from amidst the papers and books.

"Hey, it's glowing again!"

Link's voice made me jump; I hadn't heard him come down. I half-hoped he hadn't heard the previous conversation, since I neither wanted, nor needed deference, especially not from him, and fortunately, his attention was focused wholly on the rod.

"The book spell must have been one of renewal," I said after a moment, handing the rod to him. "I felt _something_ happen after I spoke, but there's so little magic hanging around the area that it took some time to come back to a full charge. How's Ilia?"

He beamed at me, which told me everything I needed to know. Lightly, I patted his shoulder, glad for him, and did my level best to not feel sorry for myself.

"What's next?" he asked, holstering the rod.

"We need to get to these places; Shad thinks the owl statues around Hyrule are all connected to this one, and he's _typically_ spot on with hunches like that," I replied, showing Link the map. "Since we can do it faster, I volunteered us to go and check."

"Check what?"

"I _was_ going to check the owls to see if they'd respond to the words I spoke, but with the rod working, I'm fairly sure our answer is a bit more... complicated," I shrugged a little. "We'll figure it out as we get there, I suppose."

He grinned a little, excited by the challenge.

"Then..."

"Yes. Midna, can you take us to this one first, please?"

"You're not going to wait fro Shad?" she asked.

"If we go now, we can probably get this done in a day or two, _and_ there's currently no one around to see the new travel method," I replied.

"Well, if you're sure," she said.

And off we went.

There were six statues all told, and once we found them, what to do was immediately obvious. The drift of magic that came from the Dominion Rod caused a reaction from underneath each statue. And, as Shad had said, unlike the statue under Renado's house,these were open, much like the statue inside the Temple of Time had been. Rod in hand, Link moved each one, and revealed a new piece of Sky Writing that had been preserved for only the goddesses knew how long underneath.

On instinct, I laid the book on each piece of writing, and it glowed briefly green-gold, absorbing the character into itself. What would have taken Shad several months of travel, and been ultimately fruitless, took us a matter of three and a half days, and was _extremely_ fruitful.

It was just passing noon when we teleported back to Kakariko, and I didn't wait for Link to change back, I took the book in hand and hurried to find Shad. Fortunately for me, he _had_ taken my words to heart, and stayed in Kakariko where he was easily found.

"What did you learn?" he asked, almost as eager to see me as I was to see him.

"We moved the statues, and found more Writing beneath. They're in the book, I think they altered the spell," I replied, passing it to him quickly.

He made a sound of delight and immediately moved to his worktable to start translating, while I returned the map I had borrowed back to its place on the wall. Link joined us just as Shad finished some furious scribbling, and jumped out of is chair to thrust the paper at me.

"Here!" the scholar said, excitement clear in his face. "This must be what unlocks this statue!"

I nodded, and moved to stand before the statue, carefully speaking the words Shad had phonetically spelled out for me. The seal at the center of the owl glowed a brilliant green-gold, then dissolved into a scattering of dust. Shad yelped a little and scurried forward, holding a lamp high to examine the change.

"Now it looks like all the other statues!" he said. After a moment, excitement gave way to puzzlement. "But... what does it _mean?_ "

"It means we can move it, and see what's on the other side. Link?"

I had decided that there was no point in hiding this from Shad. I'd already shown him the deactivated rod, and told him that he couldn't have it. The active rod would be no different, but it would be impressive... and sometimes it was _fun_ to mess with people. I do this so rarely now...

Link stepped up, and pulled the rod out, eliciting another startled noise from Shad as I pulled him back with me. The sheer _squeak_ of sound he made when the Dominion Rod infused the statue with the ability to move almost made me laugh; it _did_ make me grin.

"What... is that?" he asked faintly.

"Turns out the first word you had me read was actually a recharge spell for the rod," I said cheerfully as the statue followed Link.

"Can I study it?"

"Unfortunately, no. I have to return it to the Oocca. But I thought you'd enjoy seeing it~"

The look he turned on me was somewhere between glare and glee. Link released the statue from its magical life and the three of us headed down a short flight of stairs into a small underground cavern.

There before us, stood the remains of a Sky Cannon.

Shad made it three steps to the side, then sat down hard, staring in shock.

"Is he going to be okay?" Link asked as we walked closer to the cannon.

"He'll be fine. Mad as a hornet when he finds out we're taking this hunk of junk away, but this room alone should give him a dozen different scholarly papers," I said cheerfully.

"Take it away?"

"Well, we can't get to one of the Oocca cities with it in this state," I replied. "Our best bet is to take it to Fyer; he's worked with and on cannons his whole life, so he'd be the best bet we have at fixing it."

After a moment, Link nodded in understanding, and I went back to poke Shad.

"Here. One book, as promised," I said, handing the stunned scholar the book of Sky Writing. "I'll come back once this is over and work up a preservation spell for it, so treat it gently until then."

Shad took the book in a daze, then shook his head after a moment, and slowly got to his feet.

"What happens now?" he asked.

"I figure out a way to get the cannon out of here, and down to Fyer."

"You're going to take it _away?!_ " he yelped.

"My lands. My cannon," I said with a firm look.

After a moment, Shad looked away.

"Yes, Lady," he grumbled.

"There's more to this room than _just_ the cannon," I pointed out. "You should get started on a report about that."

That made Shad look around the room, and the pout over losing the cannon faded into scholarly excitement as he realized the walls that weren't obscured by roots were _covered_ in carvings about the Oocca.

"I should go get some paper and charcoal and start rubbing immediately!"

And he scrambled back up the stairs in a rush. I snickered a little.

"Midna, think you can grab the cannon and get us to Lake Hylia?" I asked.

"Of course I can!" she exclaimed. "That big bit of land near the spring is where you want it, right?"

"That should be perfect, yes. Close enough for Fyer to see that we have a project for him... And hopefully right where we'll need it to be."

She nodded, and spent a couple moments scouring the entire site with her magic to make sure we got every last piece of the cannon. Just as I heard Shad's scurrying steps returning, she finished, and we were off, to be dropped neatly just where we'd agreed.

In the mid-afternoon light, the cannon still looked like _junk_ , but it was slightly more impressive junk. Whatever it was made of, there was no sign of rust... if anything, the cannon looked as though ti had been purposefully dismantled, not fallen apart.

After shifting back, Link looked up at it in more than mild awe.

"I really hope this works," I muttered, heading for Fyer's cannon.

"Well, now, pretty lady, what brings you back here?" the old man asked with a raised brow. "Need another desert ride? Or just wanting to play my buddy's game up there with the chickens?"

"Neither, actually. I was hoping you might do some work for me, actually."

"Oh? So that hulk over there is yours?" He cackled slightly. "And here I thought you didn't _like_ cannons~"

"...believe me, if I had other options, I'd take them," I sighed a little.

"Well, let me take a closer look at it, then," he said, a gleam in his eye.

"Sure, come on."

I led Fyer over to the cannon and waited while he made an inspection of the parts and pieces we had.

"Well, it's... kind of retro, isn't it?" he said after a moment, a front briefly deepening the lines of his face. "I don't even see an ignition device that makes it useable..."

"It's just slightly broken too," I said dryly.

"And that," Fyer agreed. "I suppose I could fix it for you..."

"How much?" I asked.

"Three hundred rupees. In advance."

Link made a dismayed sound, but I just shrugged and reached into my pouch, pulling out three orange rupees. Fyer's eyes bulged in surprise, and I smiled thinly.

"Three hundred rupees," I said, handing them over, then waving slightly at the cannon. "How long?"

"...a week?" he hedged, still looking fairly pale and stunned by how easily I'd produced that much money.

"All right. We'll be back in a week."


	27. Twenty-six

Twenty-six

We spent the week in Kakariko, and filled it easily enough; arms and armor were repaired or replaced, I commissioned the Gorons for a few new blades that they finished with their typical speed and skill, secretly donated a good portion of my reserve funds to getting the bridge to Castletown repaired, and trained Link when he wasn't busy with either the Ordonian children, or Ilia.

Ilia with her memories restored was a much more confident young woman, and as I thought, I did enjoy her company. She was smart and sensible, and full of questions about the parts of Hyrule she _hadn't_ seen. She didn't ask too many questions about the journey, which I certainly appreciated, and it was comforting to see that the smile she gave to Link was just as affectionate as the one he gave to her.

We arrived back at just after ten of the morning, startling Fyer who had been giving the cannon one last going over.

"How'd you do that?" he demanded.

I just smiled, and declined to answer, instead looking up at the cannon. All fixed up, it was both impressive, and a little ridiculous looking, standing tall on cuckoo legs, the barrel aimed somewhat west and south.

"So, it's done, then?" I asked.

"Yup. Got some pretty powerful innards, this thing does! If you launch out of this thing, you may be knocking on the door to the heavens..." He looked a bit pensive at the idea. "Might be a bit rough..."

"We'll survive it. Thank you for the work, Fyer."

"Well, you both be careful now... but also, have fun," he smirked a little,then headed back to his own cannon on the lake.

"All right," I said after a minute, studying the cannon with undeniable uncertainly. "Let's hope that this is aimed right, and that there is something up there..."

"Are you sure there _is_ something up there?" Link asked.

I closed my eyes, and sent my senses up and out. After several minutes I nodded.

"There's _something_ there," I replied. "Way up there, just beyond what I can reliably feel, but it's there."

I knew this was not going to be fun, but I swallowed my complaint, and straightened my shoulders.

"Right. Let's get going."

Link gave me a worried look, as I made myself march around to the reach of the cannon; the clawshot target was bright and new looking, and almost mocking in its colors.

"Are you sure about this?" Link asked, carefully putting a hand on my arm. "I mean..."

"We don't know what's up there, and I need to get that shard," I replied, a bit tartly. "Let's just get it done and over with."

I hate admitting to being afraid, to being vulnerable in that fear. As much as I trust the hero, as much as I can relax around him, there are things I still do not enjoy speaking of. Link seemed to read something in my expression that forestalled further questions, and he sighed a little after a moment.

I held his free hand as he launched the clawshot, and we both landed inside the canon. The rear closed behind us, and then, of all things, the cannon seemed to _stand up_ , shake itself like a restive dog, get into position with the barrel suddenly aimed _much_ higher, and then finally we were launched.

It was not fun. At all.

Gravity caught us eventually, and I risked opening my eyes just long enough to see that we were to come down hard in a pool of water; as before, I layered us in shields that ablated the worst of the force as we splashed down.

The pool we landed in was in fairly good repair; the walls were high, and mostly blocked out the wind that was soon to be my nemesis, and the water was surprisingly clear for a stagnant pool. To the right the stairs led to what seemed to be a shop of some sort; ahead was the entrance to the city itself, and behind was a cannon aimed firmly towards the earth far below. The left hand stairs led nowhere, as whatever had been on the end of them had crumbled away from age and time.

I extended my sense out quickly, and could not help but feel dismayed. This whole _place_ was more or less a flying death trap as spells so ancient as to be forgotten were failing all over the place. Preservation, levitation, shielding... you name it the magic powering them was all but gone.

And then, to top it all off, a great, steel-plated dragon roared by overhead, trailing the unmistakeable feeling of a Mirror Shard.

I muttered a few choice words, and swam to the right hand set of stairs; the path was fine, but the walls were in disrepair, with huge gaps that did nothing to block my view of how _very_ far down it was. And then, the wind hit me.

I was safe enough, only on the edge of the steps, but it was a powerful wind this high up, and shoved me hard against the wall, before I could think to brace against it.

By the time the gust let up, I was shaking, and not just because the air had been cold enough to knife through the water-logged clothing. If that wind caught me and flung me over the edge...

Heights. Of all things in my life, it is heights that continue to cause me the greatest of troubles.

I do not like Celestia. It is not a comfortable, or comforting place for me, and I admit, much of it was passed in a blur of anxiety. I give great thanks for Link on this leg of the journey, as he was _exceedingly_ patient with my neurosis.

I remember... Link using the Iron boots a number of times to weigh himself down, and grabbing hold of me to anchor. Swearing a lot, with my eyes closed as he helped me to cross one treacherous bridge or along a ledge, and clinging to him when we were forced to take our feet entirely off the ground for whatever reason. His voice was calm throughout, and he never complained, despite the fact that I must have held on _much_ to tightly at points.

Luck led us to finding a second clawshot in an almost-empty armory on the eastern side of Celestia. ...well, I say luck, but it was less comforting than that. Lucky for Link, I suppose, but two just meant we could leave the ground for _longer_ periods of time, which really did nothing to help my state of mind.

The city itself is a marvel, I admit, from what little I do remember of it. Crumbling though it most certainly is from lack of hands to repair it, it is certainly not abandoned. The Oocca people are simply... different from Hylians. Or really, any race that walks on the earth below. They look exceedingly different...

I suppose the best description of an Oocca is a cuckoo with a human's head. They have their own language, but a few spoke Hylian, in a dialect that Link struggled with. It took me a bit to remember how to speak it, but once I did, we were given a veritable fount of information.

The dragon was a recent addition to their lives, we learned, and it made flying around outside all but impossible. In fact, it made going outside at _all_ impossible, which was not doing good things for their ability to care for their food, or maintain what they could of their city-castle.

We spent five days up there, one of which we lost mostly because when they learned I could use magic, the Oocca insisted I visit the heart of the castle, where they tangled webwork of fading spells resided. It was completely interior, no windows to the outside at all, so I was able to pretend that I was just in a normal, ground-based place, and pumped as much energy into the ancient spells as they would take.

I may not like the city, but I do not want it to fall apart either. I left the Dominion Rod there as well, glad to return the artifact to its people, to use as they pleased. They certainly seemed happy enough to have a legendary item back, if nothing else.

In the end, I am a bit ashamed to admit that Link had to take on the dragon without my help. The open tower where it had made its lair had no guarding walls to prevent a slip over the edge, and the dragon itself produced gusts of winds that could topple the unwary.

There was no lava here, no helpful Goron with the Megaton Hammer to smash a skull into the ground. Just open air, and—for me—sheer terror.

Link, hero that he is, not only stepped up, he conquered. He dodged dragon fire, steel-trimmed wings and claws, and sharp fangs to disrupt the shell that the Mirror Shard had put around itself for protection. While I could not be up there to watch the fight—I was tucked just under the platform, forced to listen and not help—I knew the precise moment the guarding spell around the shard shattered. With a reach and a twist of power, I forced the separation and banished the last fragment back to the Mirror Chamber.

He looked exhausted when he came back down, limping and weary, but also smiling with triumph. I smiled too, proud of the skills he had gained over the past months, and the fact that he no longer needed me to help him win a fight.

Not, in truth, that he has ever _really_ needed me.

We left the city, and suffered a second cannon ride back down to the lake, which again was ablated by a number of layers of shields. Link seemed to be just as glad to be on dry land again as I was, and we admittedly wasted a couple of hours just laying on the grass and listening to the lake lap against the various shores.

"Can we _never_ do that again?" Link asked, finally sitting up.

"Gladly," I replied with a grimace. "I will be more than happy to never, _ever_ , go back up there."

I let him help me to stand, then surprised him by giving him a quick hug.

"Thank you," I said simply. "I'm sorry I wasn't more help up there."

"That's not your fault," he said quickly, blushing. "And you helped the Oocca a lot, didn't you?"

"One can only hope..." I sighed a little, and ran a hand over my face. "Right. Let's go deal with Zant."

Midna had plainly been waiting for that cue, for he next thing I knew, we were teleported straight to the Mirror Chamber.

The completed Mirror gleamed silver and black in the light of the rising full moon, whole once more, and Midna let out a soft breath to see it repaired.

"Told you," I smiled a little, ascending the stairs. "Hard to break, easy to fix. Now..."

Lightly I touched the mirror, whispering the words of activation as I gently angled it towards the obsidian monolith. It glowed, and briefly the spell pattern hung in the air before planting itself on the monolith. The stone seemed to sink inwards as the magic whispered, the song of the mirror humming in the air.

"...some call our realm a world of shadows, but that makes it sound unpleasant," Midna said quietly as she watched the spell at work. "The twilight there holds a serene beauty... The same sort you see here on this world. Bathed in that light, all the people were pure, and gentle."

After a moment she glanced at me, and offered a tiny smile.

"Despite the origins of the people themselves, what we've become is not what our ancestors were."

I had to smile slightly in reply, albeit a little sadly. The seriousness returned to her face and voice as her attention drifted back to the portal.

"Things only changed after that dark power invaded our world..."

"It was, unfortunately, our doing," came the whispered moan of a Sage.

"No kidding," I replied tartly, spinning around to see the five arrayed before us once more.

Midna turned too, and laid a hand on my arm lightly. I glanced at her, then stepped back, letting her deal with the Sage constructs.

"We overestimated our skills, and our abilities in our attempt to put an end to his evil magics. We can but ask that you find it within yourself to forgive our carelessness... Oh Twilight princess."

As one, they swept low bows. Midna just looked vaguely uncomfortable for a moment.

"...as a ruler who fled her people, I'm hardly qualified to forgive you,"she replied softly. "All I managed to take with me after he chased and cursed me to this form was this piece of stolen, ancient magic..."

Her fingers lightly traced the stone crown she wore, the only piece of Fused Shadow that I had allowed the Twili people to keep, sadness in her eyes.

"It inspired the desire for revenge, and it reminded me of some of the tales and legends of my people. In our world, it's always been said that the Hero would take the form of a divine beast... Which is why I initially brought the two of you along with me," Midna admitted, glancing sheepishly at Link an myself. "I didn't know which of you would be considered the divine beast, and... Well, I thought I could use the both of your for my own end."

Link nodded a little, and I smiled wryly; I had already guessed most of this, and in her place, I likely would have done similar.

"All I wanted was to return my world to normal. I didn't care about this one... not at all," she continued. "But... after watching Zelda, and you two risk yourselves, the sacrifices you have made... I know now that I have to save this world too. There's no other way."

She turned, determination on her face.

"Defeating Zant won't get rid of the curse on me, but it will free my world, and prevent this Ganondorf from having someone else to call on when we go to revive Zelda," she said firmly. "So let's get going!"

Link nodded firmly, and I had to smile; Midna had grown up so much since we had first met her, and I admit, I was as proud of her growth as I was of Link's. The Sage constructs bowed as one, silently, and then faded away into the evening air.

"All right," I said softly. "Let's move out."

I had done this before, though it had been long centuries before. Still, when prompted, the details flowed easily back into my mind, and we stepped together onto the silver rectangle, just before the edge of the mirror platform. A silver-white staircase sprang up, leading to a delicate balcony just before the portal. I looked at it for a long moment, then made a slight gesture, murmuring a few words quietly as I focused my energy and intention into what I wanted the magic to do. Behind us, the song of the mirror grew louder as it bathed us in silver light, and we were sent spiraling into the realm of the Twili.

Reforming on the other side, I took a long look around; it had been many long centuries since I had set foot in this place, and it had grown quite a bit. By necessity, the portal end had terminated on as large a piece of land as I could find; ironically enough, directly in front of the gates of the Twilight Palace.

It really is a beautiful realm, trapped on the edge of night. The clouds are russet and gold, the sky just deep blue enough to suggest the onset of nightfall, but light enough to also suggest the coming of dawn. It has ground, of a sort, but it's not all solid; instead, the large slabs of earth hover above mists, islands connected to one another by magic that had long since ceased to be mine.

It's... hard to describe this realm, honestly. It's not Hyrule's antithesis, it's not a mirror. It's a world all its own, that ours touched, because of my mistake. It's a beautiful, sometimes dangerous, sometimes intimidating world... Brimming with magic in a way that Hyrule does not.

I admit, I do miss it.

As we stepped off the golden spell diagram onto the stone-covered earth, Midna cleared her throat a little uncertainly.

"Can I ask... one last, selfish favor? Regardless of what my reasons were, I did once abandon this world. I left behind the Twili who followed me and considered me their ruler... Even now as they remain here, suffering, they likely believe that help will come for this world."

"It has. _We_ have," Link said firmly.

"But... if they see that I am like this, don't you think they'd feel... let down?"

She looked at me, plainly seeking my opinion.

"No," I said after a moment. "Midna, yes, you left, but you've come _back_ , and regardless of face or form, they would probably rally to you because of their belief in you. Sometimes the only way to live and keep fighting is to retreat and recoup your losses."

"You think...?"

"I know. I've been there," I grimaced a little. "But, if you feel you can't face them yet, that's fine too. It's not easy coming back."

She glanced at Link, who nodded a little in agreement.

"I'm... going to keep being a shadow," she said softly. "Just for a little bit longer."

"It's all right," Link said with a smile. "We'll help your people, no matter what."

She managed a weak, fleeting smile, and dove back into Link's shadow.

We walked down the short incline, towards what would have been a central plaza—or perhaps a fountain—in any other world. Three shadow beasts stood there, as if on guard, but... Something was off; they weren't built the same as the beasts we'd faced continually in Hyrule, all long limbs and red patterning. These ones were... sort and rather rotund. One was taller. Their geometric patterning was a softer, more gentle green.

The only thing that was the same was the strange mask-helm they were wearing.

Uncertainly I put a hand on my sword hilt, and slowed from a fast walk to a slow one. Link followed suit, but when none of the being seemed ready to attack, I moved in for a closer look.

"Midna?"

"...these are my people," she replied quietly, though she stayed out of sight. "But... he's done something to them. They... they shouldn't be like this."

We were in the plaza proper now, and I took a good look around, something else nagging at my senses.

"...where's the Sols?" I asked, as memory snapped into place. "They should be right here..."

"What are Sols?" Link asked.

"They're a little like the sun of your world, just.. made smaller," Midna explained as I paced the small plaza, frowning at the empty spaces. "They're pure power, and the source of life in this world. She's right, they're both supposed to be right here; they power almost everything we have on all the islands..."

"Zant must have moved them to cut people off," I said finally, crouching to run my fingers along the indent where one Sol belonged. "People are easy to twist when they're isolated and afraid."

"We have to find them and put them back," Midna replied, her voice anxious. "Can you sense them anywhere?"

"It's been a _long_ time since I sent those c-" I paused, then shook my head. "Cutting the technical part out, no, the twilight here fogs what I can do, even with the portal being held open. But they're acclimated to this world, and you probably could, tiny form or not. Try."

This drew her out of Link's shadow, to hover near where the Sols belonged. She stretched out a hand gingerly, as if afraid to be burned, and a line of green-gold light appeared, heading off to the left, to a short path, and the left wing of the castle. Another went to the right, but the path there was non-existent; it's transport plate was lifeless without the power of a Sol.

"All right," I said with a nod and a smile of pride. "Left it is. Let's find these things, and give these people back some hope."

Midna was somewhere between embarrassed and pleased when she dove back into Link's shadow, and I stood up.

"You did a lot for these people in the past, didn't you?" Link asked quietly as we made our way down the path.

I was quiet for several minutes, weighing my answer with care. The door we found opened with a delicate touch, ascending softly upwards before I thought I had something I could say.

"What happened to them in the beginning was my fault," I replied as we entered a dim passage lined with strange gold-black clouds. "I couldn't go in and out at will, but I could send things through, could... help them until I _did_ find my way in and out again. So I did what I could to make living here easier, with the thought that someday, I could fix this. But they changed to swiftly, and before I knew it, there was no bringing anyone out. All I could do was help them live on."

"...you did really good then," he said simply.

I blinked, startled by the reply that my failures had amounted to something _good_ , and kept the peace as we worked our way through the basement floor, following the gold-green thread of light that Midna had conjured up for us to follow.

It led us, eventually, to a room that—anywhere else—might have been a ballroom, a music room, or even a militaristic practice room. We had to drop down from a balcony, and I disliked the idea immensely; I could see no other pathway out, nor any stairs that would let us return the direction we'd come from. At the far end of the room was a black stone-seeming hand... and in the hand's grip was a golden ball, ringed with faint green lines.

"This has all the makings of a trap," I said after a minute.

"That's the Sol, though, right?" Link asked.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Then I guess we're walking into the trap."

It startled a laugh out of me to hear him so matter of fact, and he jumped down without waiting. I shook my head a little and followed; I could hardly let him go where I wouldn't, after all.

Red-runed black pillars and a barrier, all familiar, blocked the way to the Sol, and dropped into place behind us—as if the initial ten foot high wall wasn't enough of a blockade. Swords were drawn in a heartbeat as a phantasm of Zant appeared, and the so-called King of Twilight was not given any time to cast; the second I saw the spell forming between those ridiculous sleeves, I leapt to action and gave him a solid swipe across the chest.

It took some exception to my immediate jump to attack, and promptly began a game of chase. That is to say, the damn thing started teleporting to random areas around the room, never staying more than a moment in each, for a good five minutes. Link made a frustrated noise; he wanted to go haring off after the teleporting enemy, but I had him by the back of his tunic.

"Patience," I cautioned. "There's a pattern to this. Either it'll get tired of bouncing around, or it'll misjudge. He wants to wear us down so we lose. We have to think smart here. If you need to get out there, pick a spot and _wait_. He'll come to us sooner or later."

Link nodded in understanding and I released his tunic, going instead for the new long knife the Gorons had made for me. I'd had no time to work enchantments on it, but it was a serviceable enough blade for damage. It would do well enough for what it was meant.

Link chose to pick a spot, and kept his guard up; as I'd predicted, soon enough the illusiory Zant made a mistake, and appeared too close to the hero to dodge out of the way. Link's sword snapped into action, stabbing out into a multi-hit move that I couldn't help but smirk to see. He really had learned quite well, both from his past self, and from me.

It jumped away from him, only to end up close to me, back turned towards what it saw as the greater threat; Link. It was already ragged around the edges, and it seemed to have forgotten that there were _two_ of us.

It was quickly reminded, and I was no more polite about it than Link had been. The two of us kept hammering it, switching positions every time in caught on that we were in specific positions, until the spell unraveled with a burst of gold-black mists that blanketed half the room.

"Be careful about that," Midna said, popping up in moderate alarm. "That fog is made up of shadow crystals that Zant created! They blot out the light, and they'll turn you into your beast forms."

"Oh _really_?"

I was just about done with Zant's nonsense, to be perfectly honest. Since I had ended up near the Sol, I turned and delivered a solid smack to the hand grasping it. It popped open, and I caught up the large ball before it could roll too far, though I had to sheathe my weapons in the process. Hefting it up into my arms I proceeded to march straight into the fog... which vanished at my irritated approach. There was a depression in the floor, and after a studying moment, I put the Sol into it; the power radiated outward, and a set of stairs rose from the floor.

And behind me, the hand gained a red-runed life of it's own. Link's startled yelp had me spin about, and I admit, I gaped to see it rising into the air. It immediately brought to mind the ancient wall and floor masters I had faced in the past. It's progress was _slow_ , but inexorable, and after a moment I gave myself a stern mental shake.

"Panic later, run now!" I snapped.

Link jolted, and scrambled up the stairs. I turned, grabbed the Sol, and swore a little as the stairs sank back into the floor. After a moment the idea snapped into place, and I hurriedly set it back down, running up the renewed stairs, then caught Link by the arm.

"Calwshot, _now_."

He didn't hesitate; one clawshot was rapidly produced and aimed straight for the Sol. Just before the hand would have swooped down upon it, the claw shot out, and caught on the fine metalwork of the Sol, yanking it back to Link, who immediately passed it to me. I wasn't about to argue; _one_ of us needed to have their hands free, and in truth, it was easier for me to carry.

We more or less ran back through the previous rooms, occasionally putting the Sol where it needed to go to power the emergence of more stairs, that damn thing chasing us the entire way. When we made it out front again, I had a half-formed thought that it would _keep coming_.

Fortunately for us worn out humans, it did not appear outside the building. I have never been more glad of a spell's limitations; I didn't want to try running in an area where tripping and dropping the Sol could end with it falling over an edge.

As we passed the enchanted Twili people, the power of the Sol shredded the spells they were under, freeing them from whatever Zant had been trying to turn them into, and returning them to their own true forms. Personally, after seeing those forms, it felt like Midna worried unnecessarily, but I wasn't about to say as much.

The return of the first Sol activated the levitation platform that would get us over to the second, which had been stored in the right wing of the palace. It was oddly the more difficult side, as if the first had been only a mockery of a test, while this was the real one. At the end of it we found the second Sol, as trapped as the first, and this phantasm of Zant was noticeably smarter. It didn't appear close to us, but rather behind, and launched a spell rapidly to the middle of the room that left us surrounded by shadow versions of a Serpent Baba.

And unlike the phantasm, these things were not illusions.

I pulled more heavily on my magic this fight, and let Link chase Zant around the room while I dealt with the strange things the fake kept dropping on us; Serpent Baba and shadow keese were the least of it; he was also fond of dropping shadow beasts in as well.

I am not _entirely_ sure how Link managed to beat the damn thing into submission again, but he did so quite well, though it left yet another plethora of shadow crystals in the middle of the room, this time seeded with wriggling shadow vermin.

To say we were all feeling rather done at this point was an understatement. But at least this time we were also prepared to be chased by the floating hand. We made it out faster, and returned the Sol to its proper place.

With the second Sol in place, the spells on the Twili in the area completely shattered, and I could sense a ripple-effect spreading outwards from this central island. Soon enough, Midna's people would be free of whatever it was that Zant and Ganondorf's power had done to them.

"Do you two need to stop?" Midna asked cautiously. "You look kind of... worn out."

I glanced at Link, who was nursing his side slightly, and took mental stock of myself; while this twilight did not press on me, I was feeling the demands of the previous few days still, and once more, there was no telling how long we had been at this retrieval.

"We should probably take a break," I admitted. "Rest up, heal up, and then give Zant what's coming to him."

Link nodded a little in agreement, and seemed quite willing to drop onto the ground where we stood. I glanced around cautiously—seeing life returning to the Twili people, who were stirring and some staring—and caught Link by the arm before he could move to curl up on the ground.

"Back near the portal," I said quietly. "We're scaring the population. We should give them some space while they figure out what the hell happened."

Link groaned a little, but nodded and wearily followed me back up to the portal out. Once there, he wrapped up in his bedroll and passed out, and after a brief session with the Light Medallion—which I rested on his forehead once I was done—I followed suit.


	28. Twenty-seven

Twenty-seven

As I slept, I felt the featherlight touch of immortality and agelessness that marked a god or goddess. Age notwithstanding, there are some feeling impossible to forget, and that sensation is one of them. But it was a gentle touch, not meant to alarm, and it whispered words into my mind, instructions. While I had sent the components and instructions to make the Sols so long ago, it had been the Twili that had put them together, had powered the initial magic. It was the Twili who truly knew how to use them.

Now, gods and goddesses are a strange conception. There are those who simply _are_ , like the three who created Hyrule. They were before the beginning, they made the world, and they stepped out of it after a time, leaving only gifts and memories. Then there are those who come into being by the collective will of a people. Whether they have been and were just waiting, or were spontaneously created, I cannot say, nor do I have the desire to speculate.

When I woke, I knew what had to be done next, though I was loathe to actually _do_ it. Borrowing the power of the Sols would help us defeat Zant, but the transfer of power only worked one way. We could not 'put them back' as I had done with the Dominion Rod, after we had used the power, it would be forever locked into the blade. And we could not leave the Master Sword behind.

The reassurance pattered over my psyche like raindrops, but I impatiently brushed it aside; Link was still sleeping, so I quietly put my bedroll away, and walked down to the Sols so that I could speak my piece without waking him.

The plaza was deserted, but there was that sense of ponderous watching and waiting, the taste of fear, and the strong undercurrent of hope; the Twili might not be showing themselves now that they were returned to normal, but they were very much _there_.

"This isn't a good idea," I said quietly. "If we take the power of the Sols, what's going to keep this world alive? I may regret that it came about, but I do _not_ want to kill this place. It deserves to live as much as Hyrule, if not more."

The silence stretched for several long, tense minutes, and then slowly, a shape began to form. Feminine, and tall, made of a mix of shadow and light. She didn't solidify, but I had little doubts that this was one of the guardian gods of this world that had come into being because of the Twili.

 _You worry for them muchly, great one._

"I'm not great," I replied tartly. "And of course I do. They're like this because of me. I want them to keep living."

 _This we know._

"Then why are you telling me to take the Sols power into the Master Sword?"

 _The False King can be defeated by nothing less than that power_ , she breathed. _Until our True Ruler can recover the lost magics he stole from her._

"Why can't I use the Light Medallion?"

 _It, they, the artifacts you carry, are too powerful in light. The world would be blinded, blotted, and fall apart. The softer power of your Sols will be safer, tempered and house in the sword of Evil's Bane._

I frowned a little; I didn't like the answer, but I could see the logic of it.

"Yes, okay, fine. But what about the people? Midna said the Sols bring life, and I can sense the hope their reemergence has brought."

 _You fear they will be lost, and this world will drift to its death_ , and I got the sensation of a smile from her, though I could make out no features on her face. _Your kindness brought life and safety to the world. The power will not vanish from it. The Sols are merely the outward shell; the container can be remade, and when the True Ruler returns, all will be as it ought_.

"That's still not entirely reassuring," I grumbled.

 _You gave us the means to live, great one. What once was, no longer is, and the Sols power is not just laid here. They can be recreated, and this will will live on._

I grimaced at being called 'great one' again. By their terms, I was their creator goddess, though I suppose I could also have been considered the instrument of their downfall. Mythology is confusing at the best of times...

The news that Midna, once restored to her true form, could recreate the Sols was only slightly more comforting, but I sighed, and bowed my head a little.

"All right... I don't like it one bit, but all right."

The misty dark-light form gave me the brief impression that I was being laughed at, even as it faded away, and I turned my mind to wondering just _how_ I was going to convince Link to go through with this as well. And Midna. After a long, discomforting moment, I elected to say nothing, and walked up to the portal exit to wait for the hero to wake up.

It didn't take too terribly long after my return, at least. After eating and cleaning up, we walked in determined silence back down to the plaza; Link followed me without thinking about it, even as I braced myself to walk between the Sols. I felt the sizzle of energy as a hidden third glowing pattern blossomed into life under Link's feet, and the two Sols abruptly vanished. Link yelped, and spun in distress, hand going to his sword and drawing it in anticipation of an attack.

The blade of the Master Sword gleamed golden, spilling fragments of soft light down to the stone below.

"The power of the Sols... have been transferred to the sword," Midna said in soft awe. "The guardian deities of my world are on our side as well! If it wasn't proved before, this will definitely do it; you are the chosen one, Link... a true hero."

He flushed a little in embarrassment and pleasure.

"With the power in that sword, you should be able to repel anything that Zant can throw at you," and her smile turned just slightly feral and dark. "Let's go get him."

Link nodded, sheathing the sword again after another long minute of staring at it, then glanced at me, looking proud and hopeful. I nodded a little—there was no point in trying to make myself smile when I worried that this wouldn't end well, no matter _what_ the goddess I'd spoken to had said—and we turned to continue to the main palace, where we would finally face Zant.

Making a rough estimate of time, I _believe_ reaching him took us about six hours. Zant had settled in, fortifying his defenses, and booby-trapping practically every hall and doorway that led to him. We faced shadow kargarok, baba, and more of his ridiculous armored heads that spat balls of magic; Link used his sword to cut through gold-black mists that barred our path, and strike down the shadow beasts that came calling without remorse.

When we stood before the throne room at long last, the final thing that blocked the way in was a complex spell, that I admit I could not make sense of. Midna, however, took one look at it, and snapped her fingers, exerting her own abilities; it crumbled into nothingness, and at her touch, the door slid aside.

The throne room was a far cry from impressive; beyond the glowing blue mural on the wall behind the throne itself, this room was empty and almost bleak; no windows opened to the outside, despite being on the highest level of the castle, and there was a sense of fury, and grief that blanketed the air.

Zant sat on the throne as we approached, seemingly unconcerned; with the new robes, I couldn't see if his wounds had healed, but given the amount of time that had passed, it as likely that they had. Midna's own anger was almost a living thing and she floated ahead, eyes focused and determined. Link and I flanked her to the left and right, and the bared Master Sword gleamed in threat.

"Zant," Midna said shortly.

The pretender king of the Twili only raised the lower half of his helment so that we could see his smug, superior smile.

"Isn't this ironic?" Midna continued, her voice shifting from angry to a semi-smug condescension. "Here we are, thanks to that dark magic curse you tried to place on Link, and the 'sorceress' who didn't care about us."

A smirk flitted across her face as she spoke, and the taste of anger in the air grew stronger, and more potent.

"You speak of magic?" he hissed, slowly rising to his feet. "Still your tongue a moment, whelp, and I will tell you of both magic, and the oppression of ages..."

The helmet drew back completely, revealing for the first time, Zant's full face. Unlike Midna, his eyes were completely golden, and the burned with both magic and malice.

"The people of our tribe, a tribe that has mastered the arts of magic, were locked away in this world, like insects in a cage. In these shadows, we regressed so much that we soon knew neither hatred nor anger... nor the faintest bloom of desire." He began twisting and contorting himself about, as if trying to unnerve us by the display. "And all of it was the fault of a useless, do-nothing royal family that had resigned itself to this _miserable_ half-existence!"

Abruptly he unwound, and yelled angrily, hopping up and down much like a toddler throwing a tantrum. I was somewhere between unimpressed and amused... and maybe slightly relieved that this particular brand of blame wasn't being laid at my feet, though I could certainly call him on his bullshit.

I did not, because for the moment, this was between Midna and Zant; if she wanted my interference, she would let me know.

"I had served and endured in that depraved household for _far_ too long, my impudent princess," he hissed.

He lunged forward then, leaping from the top of the throne's dais to flash towards us; he was fast, I was faster. My sword was protecting Midna before he was in Link's face. Link, however was startled enough to jerk back and raise his sword defensively, but before he could strike, Zant flashed off to the side, then to our backs, whirling himself in circles like a top.

"And _why,_ you might ask?" he cried as he spun. "Because I believed that _I_ would be the next to rule our people. _That_ is why!"

He moved back swiftly, out of range of both blades, then took a brief pose as if to say 'ta-da' before once more bending backwards to look directly up. I took a half-step forward—I and not an honorable fighter, and I will take _every_ advantage—but Midna stopped me with an outstretched arm. I grimaced a little, but stayed still; it wasn't hard to see that she wanted to know what drove Zant to make his bargain with Ganondorf.

"But would they acknowledge me as their king? _No!_ " he cried, still looking directly up at the ceiling. "And as such, I was denied the magic powers befitting our ruler! It was then, in the thrall of hatred and despair, that I turned my eyes heavenward... and found a _god_."

"I'm sure he's pleased to know you think of him like that," I muttered sourly. "He's always wanted to be a god."

I heard both Midna and Link snort just slightly.

"He housed his power in me," Zant said dreamily. "Anything I wanted, so did he. And my god wanted only _one_ thing."

He yanked himself back to his feet abruptly, the helmet clacking back into place as he vanished, then reappeared by the throne.

"To merge shadow and light, and create _darkness_."

"...that's _so_ not how it works," I sighed. "Midna, can I stab him yet?"

" _Please_."

Zant, it seemed, was done talking anyways; with a flare of power, the room around us vanished, to be replaced by the poisoned air and water that we had found at the Old One's base. An illusion, but an astoundingly good one; while it could not affect me, since I knew how to defeat illusions, I knew Link would not be so lucky. Which meant that I too had to treat it as though it was real, to prevent him from trying to 'rescue' me from peril.

We suffered through a handful of these; after dropping him into the poisoned water three times, he swapped us to the Goron mines. I kicked him into the lava twice, and apparently he himself suffered the illusiory power, as his robe lit on fire both time, the sleeves burning all the way to the wrist before he could put them out. He also lost part of his tabard.

As if in retaliation for his ruined robe, he swapped us into water, the room in which we had faced the giant Morpha-like fish. There was little time to switch to full Zora armor, but in this case, Link needed only the facemask. This time, Zant was finally stabbed, twice, and the illusion was dropped in favor of returning us to the room where we had faced the leader of the monkeys who lived _in_ the Old One. Knocking him onto his ass was _heavily_ satisfying.

The final illusion was the result of Zant _completely_ losing his temper, and control of the spell itself; he dropped us in the fields of Hyrule, before the blockaded castle. There were no lethal disadvantages here, just a barrier that blocked us from getting to far—the edges of the room, I assumed.

From the ruins of his sleeves, Zant produced two swords, and came lunging at both Link and myself in his fury. We split, and he hurtled uselessly into the space between us. I half-expected him to go after Link, so when he turned and lunged in my direction I was surprised, but not off-guard.

Zant's sword fighting was... uninspired. His overhand strikes were telegraphed, and while he was not weak, he was not at a strength that would have challenged me. He _speed_ was impressive, but there was no hints of either Gerudo or Sheikah-styled skill. But I kept him occupied while Link worked his way around and pulled one of _my_ move; he stabbed Zant through the back.

He howled in pain, and collapsed, the illusion shattering like a soap bubble to reveal that we had never _left_ the throne room. Nor was it the _only_ spell he lost control of; the Fused Shadows had been straining to return to Midna ever since we'd walked into the room. With his collapse, the broke free of his bindings, and went to her of their own accord, ancient magic reuniting in a second with the one who could truly command their power.

The curse on her, however, did not vanish. But thanks to being forewarned, she was only disappointed, not in despair, and clenched her hands tightly for a long moment.

"Y-you... _traitor_ ," Zant gasped out, having somehow hauled himself back into the throne.

"Traitor? _Hah_!" Midna's voice was filled with anger and scorn. "You know why none would call you king, Zant?! It was your eyes. All could see the lust for power in them! Did you think we'd forget that our ancestors lost a king to that same greed?"

That, I knew, had to come from the Gerudo heritage. It seemed almost ironic, really...

"You... foolish princess," he spat through his labored breathing. "That curse you're under _can't_ be broken! It was placed upon you by the power of my _god_ , and you will _never_ regain the power you held as leader of the Twilight!"

She glanced at me, and I rolled my eyes. Again, we had already _known_ that it was Ganondorf's curse, so his words, meant to inflame anger, only created cold contempt instead.

But that contempt was enough to stir the power she now carried, power that was old and ancient, and responded to strong emotions rather than directly to willpower.

"He has already been reborn into the world," he continued, and mad giggling began, "and as long as my master Ganon survives, he will resurrect me again, and again, and a-"

Midna's patience abruptly vanished, and the power of the Fused Shadows flowed without command or control. Her hair, already flame-like, lashed out in spikes of power that impaled Zant to the throne. He howled in agony as the power pulsed through him, then burst him like he was nothing more than a balloon.

Link stared in stunned silence as Midna's emotions shifted abruptly from rage to horror; she curled up in the air, visible eye wide, and shuddering with the after-effects of the magic.

"I... I used a _fraction_ of the power that's in me now," she breathed, her skin about three shades paler. "I d-did _that_ with only a fraction of my ancestors' magic?!"

"Midna. Midna, breathe," I said, reached out and laying my hands on her shoulders. "The Fused Shadows can be commanded and controlled. They respond to strong emotions, but also to strong will. Just breathe."

"I w-w-wanted t-to.. I-I..."

"Shhhh... I know," I hesitated a moment, then drew the shaking ruler to me in a loose hug. "I know. But you're strong, Midna. You're powerful, and you're brave, and you're wiser now than you were at the start. You can do this." I huffed a little in amusement, and smiled, though she couldn't see it. "I wouldn't have given you the Fused Shadows if I didn't think you could tame their power."

Slowly, her breathing evened out; once I was sure she wasn't going to hyperventilate, I let her go, and we turned to survey the now empty room. Of Zant, there was no sign, and I knew there never would be—he had served his use as Ganondorf's tool, and now he was discarded like a broken one.

Midna's jaw firmed, and she turned to us.

"Now is the time," she said. "We _must_ save Zelda. I might not have been able to take Zant's power from him, but I still have the power of my ancestors... and with it, I can returned the cherished gift that Zelda gave to me."

She studied her hands for a long moment, before looking up at Link, then me. Determination and nobility shone in her visible eye, and again I reflected on just how far she had come from the self-centered, manipulative little princess she had once been.

"We _must_ save her," she repeated.

"Now's probably the best time," I agreed. "We're ready, the last of our enemies has fallen, and we have the strength. Are you ready hero?"

I slanted him a sidelong look, and he nodded firmly.

"Yeah!"

Midna smiled at both of us, then flitted back into Link's shadow as we turned to make our way out of the Palace of Twilight.

When we stepped back into the open air, the silence had changed; no longer was it fearful, the hope had eclipsed all else. The watchful eyes seemed kind, and almost as if they were calling encouragement; though no words were actively heard, the sense of it straightened Link's shoulders, and gave his steps a new, firmer purpose. We were going to save _both_ worlds, come hells or high water.

Ganondorf was the last challenge that stood in our way, and after all these months, I knew it would soon be time.

I couldn't help the excitement that tingled along my spine; it had nothing to do with the upcoming challenge of fighting Ganondorf, and _everything_ to do with the fact that soon—so I believed—I would be free.

"So Zant really _was_ a puppet for Ganondorf," Midna said as we stepped into the blazing sunlight of mid-morning in the desert.

"You had doubts?" I asked dryly.

"Well... I wasn't sure like you were," she admitted. "I thought he really _might_ be resurrected right there..."

"Ganondorf uses people like tissues, and throws them aside when he's done with them," I said, shaking my head a little. "That's the trouble with absolute power; it lets you think you can do anything you want and not face any consequences. Why don't we go... disabuse him of this notion?"

"Right!"


	29. Twenty-eight

Twenty-eight

As we appeared on Hylian soil once more, a low rumble of thunder greeted us, as dark clouds quickly grew to obscure the light of the sun. Link glanced up at them warily, but I just shrugged and moved across the bridge. Hyrule's strange weather forecasting danger and evil was nothing new or unusual, and there was little point in pondering it while there was still a princess in need of rescuing.

We crossed the active town in silence, pushing our way through the crowds until we reached the open space before the path to the palace itself; an eerie feeling rode in the air this close, the heavy weight of Power that pressed on a person's mind. Link grimaced a little, and I nodded in agreement; Ganondorf's subtlety was nonexistent.

The guards eyed us warily, but made no move to prevent us from crossing under the archway through to the bridge and gates of the castle. Whether this was because they recognized me, or recognized the air of purpose we had, we were left unmolested, unchallenged, and approached the golden-black barrier without fear.

It was large and strong; even with my spirits backing me, I knew there was minimal chance of me doing more than cracking a hole in that I could slip through if I was fast enough. Midna, however, had other ideas.

She summoned the three pieces of fused Shadow that had once been kin to the crown she wore. They hovered momentarily as she looked at them, then abruptly snapped back into place. I motioned Link back as Midna was lifted by the power, and thrown about, being _tested_ and forced to prove herself capable without our aid.

When the mask flung her over the edge, Link made a dismayed sound, but I only shook my head and waited. My patience was swiftly rewarded.

The form she took was golden-green-black, with seven limbs much more like arms than legs. Compared to the barrier, she was about the size of a poison mite, but that seemed to matter little to her. She jumped from the parapet of the bridge to a point on the barrier, high above us, initially scrambling to find purchase... and a weak point in the barrier.

I could not see specifically _how_ she broke the barrier—we were too far away for that. But break it she did, shattering it into nothingness.

This took a toll on her; she dropped like a stone, a small speck of shadow amongst the blinding light; Link rushed forward to catch her, and shielded her from what was left of the reaction of the barrier as it soundlessly vanished. Mist flooded out of the grounds, even as the rain poured down from overhead, loosed at last thanks to the release of energy.

As the light faded to a more normal level, I could hear the shouts of panic and confusion that came up from the market. Soon enough, I knew there would be guards up here, nervous or not... but fortunately enough, Midna also came around quickly. Link's relived sigh was met with a tiny smile, and then they both looked at, at the palace we could now enter.

"Let's move, before the guards figure out where they hid their courage and brains," I said quietly.

Midna nodded, floating free and then diving back into Link's shadow. Link and I didn't _run_ , but we weren't exactly slow in slipping through the half-open gate to cross the bridge and enter the palace grounds properly.

The castle courtyard was empty and still. No guards challenged or greeted us, no gardeners were in sight, no frightened courtiers, or servants tried to stampede their way to freedom. It was _too_ quiet.

"This feels like a trap," Link said softly.

I nodded in agreement, and we walked cautiously together towards the main door of the castle. Partway there, a barrier of golden magic surrounded us.

The first thing to attack were the kargarok; they were easy enough to swat out of the sky and discard. Bokoblin were next, a damned mob of them. Link and I went back to back, and cut them down, and I grumbled a little under my breath about one-way barriers and cheating. I don't know that Link _understood_ it, but I felt him chuckle.

Bokoblin were followed by bulbin, and I was losing patience at this point. The rain had slackened some after its initial burst, and after some mental adjustment, I launched a ball of flame that sizzled when hit, but did the job it was meant to.

And then, into the ring fell the bulbin leader. I was fairly sure it was the same idiot we'd been trying to kill since we first encountered him, and I felt Link freeze up in shock. I joined him when the thing actually _spoke_.

"I have come to play," it growled. "You want into palace, you go through me."

I blinked a couple of times, mentally processing the idea that this thing _spoke_ , then pushed it aside and shrugged.

"Fine by me."

It carried the largest battle axe I had _ever_ seen, and hefted the thing like it weight no more than a spear, then rolled its neck on its shoulders with a smirk. I drew my sword and long knife, stepping up without a second thought.

"Raiha, but..."

"Save your strength, Link," I said firmly, my eyes never leaving the leader. "We'll need it most when we face Ganondorf instead of his damn peons."

I heard him step back, making space for the fight, and then dismissed him entirely from my mind and settled into stance.

The nice thing about speed training is that it makes me damned difficult to hit. The bulbin leader was fast for someone of his size, but he was not _quite_ fast enough to hit me. Which was good, since really, all it would take was _one_ hit with that weapon to do serious, sincere damage. It left large divots in earth and stone where I dodged, and a small part of me wondered if Zelda was going to be annoyed at how we were ruining the public courtyard.

There was something off about the way he fought, but I was not inclined to take the time to figure out what it might be. He was in the way, and I was inclined to remove him.

Remove him, I did. I found the split second of an opening in his impressive guard, and both blades snaked in, driving deep into his chest. There was a look on his face of shock, as though he hadn't thought I might actually kill him, and then I pulled my blades free, and stepped back as he collapsed, greenish blood flowing rapidly out onto the stones.

I had no time for pity or remorse, nor any need to spend the energy on them. After wiping the blades clean, I proceeded to dig through his pouch to see if he had anything remotely useful. Into my hands came a set of keys, and I nodded firmly to myself.

"This should make life much easier," I said as the barrier faded into nothingness again.

Link stared at the downed body of the bulbin leader, then looked up at me, almost searchingly. Whatever he saw in my face unnerved him, and I am sorry for that, but I had no time to spare on worrying about what _he_ thought of me either.

The keys unlocked the entrance to the castle, and I headed inside.

The air was heavy and still,the same sort of stillness that had blanketed the air outside. Fear and anger gave the air a distinct taste... but it was not _just_ those in the air. The entryway was where we found the first bodies; the guards that had tried to defend their castle, and a handful of servants lay scattered about like broken dolls... though granted, dolls don't bloat and rot.

Link choked a little, and took a shaky step back as I looked around the dimly-lit room dispassionately. I would feel it all later, when there was safety and room to allow it, but at the moment, I needed focus. I needed to be cold and heartless, feeling pity nor anger, nor regret at long this had taken us.

"Focus on the task at hand,Link," I said quietly. "We still have much to do before we emerge victorious from this."

He made a faint sound that was close enough to agreement for me to accept, and I strode across the large room to the doors on the far side that would lead us to the stairs up.

More bodies littered every room we stepped into. Women. Children. Old men. Young men. Servants, guards, courtiers... It was such a flagrant waste of life.

The walls were stained with soot from explosions, and blood from bodies, and the stentch of rot was thick everywhere. And of course, it wasn't like the palace was _empty._ We saw plenty of opposition as we climbed stairs and explored rooms with the keys I carried; bokoblin, dinalfos, lizalfos... like Zant, Ganondorf has used the time we'd been forced to take gathering the shards of the mirror to fortify his position in the palace.

And he hadn't given half a damn about the people who had lived in it.

One stairway was completely collapsed; I knew it to be a feature of this particular set of stairs, and not something he'd done himself, but it was still a problem. The stairs were triggered by a special stone insert... that was at the _top_ of the stairs, not the base. It was meant to discourage any invaders, forcing them to take another path around that was narrower, and more of a bottleneck.

But it could also be surmounted, if one was determined and clever.

"Can you shimmy up that ledge?" I asked, nodding slightly to the narrow strip of stone that only _just_ peeked out from the wall.

"...yeah," Link nodded firmly after a minute. "I can get up that."

"All right, here's what we'll do, then. I'll take the clawshots, and go from vent to vent as you shimmy up. That way if you fall, I'll have a chance of catching you."

"Your faith in me is astounding," He sighed a little, affecting a pout.

I blinked, and had to smile, just a tiny bit.

"I have plenty of faith in you," I replied. "This is just insurance."

Sobering, he nodded, and passed over the clawshots.

Annoyingly enough, no matter how bound my breasts were, I would never have been able to make it up the ledge, But I could, and did, clawshot from decorative light cover to cover up the stairwell until we reached the top. Fortunately for my state of mind, I did _not_ have to use them to rescue the hero from a fall.

At the top, a chain-mesh portcullis dropped from the ceiling, and a large darknut came to life the moment it hit the ground at our heels. It went immediately for Link, who just managed to get his shield up in time to deflect the blow, though he staggered back, having not been prepared for it.

This one was better made than the one we'd faced at the Temple of Time, and while slow, moved fluidly, blocking Link's attacks with undeniable skill.

I admit, I felt just _slightly_ insulted. While I doubted Ganondorf had forgotten about me, it wasn't hard to guess that he saw any threat I possessed as being negligible.

On the other hand, it allowed me to nip in and out of the fight, slicing straps to reach the core of the creature. Link was the one to kill it, to be certain, but with the way he smiled at me in relief, I knew he was wondering just how hard this might have been to do alone.

Lightly I patted his shoulder, and we continued on through the darkened portrait gallery hall, until we reached the door that would take us back outside.

"We're almost there," I told him. "One more set of interior stairs, and then we'll head back to to reach the throne room."

"That's where he is?"

"That's where he is."

Link's jaw firmed, and his shoulders straightened. We stepped out into stillness, no rain, not even a tiny hint of a breeze disturbed the thick fog that had come to lay across the ramparts. From the mists came aeralfos, swooping down to attack wit only the rushing sounds of their wings to warn us.

Now, the path around the palace's upper floors isn't necessarily _narrow_ , but with the fog, it's hard to judge where the edge is. A fall from that height would have been bad, to say the least, but we received some unexpected help.

Arrows hissed into the air around us, and the aeralfos fell with cries of pain and surprise. Link stared, then turned in surprise at the sound of voices from below. I hid a smile, and moved to the parapet; making their way through the mists were not just Telma's little group, but a good number of guardsmen and women from the market, slowly fanning out to search the grounds.

The members of the resistance waved, and I lifted a hand slightly in acknowledgment. Link's wave was much more enthusiastic, and there was the faintest change in the air. An anger that had grown... deeper, more dire.

"We've officially been noticed," I said calmly. "We should keep moving."

"Will they be all right?"

"They'll be fine. The worst they'll run into down there are probably some bulbin or bokoblin. Most of the guards are useless, but I'm pretty sure Telma would make certain that the ones she and the others brought with aren't."

He hesitated a moment, then nodded, and we headed back in for the final passage of stairs.

The upper levels were empty and clear, the smell of remains only faintly present in the air. Tension crept along my shoulders and neck as I listened hard for anything that might jump to the attack, but...

"There's nothing here?" Link murmured.

"False sense of security, maybe," I replied. "Lull us into complacency, maybe... I don't know, I've only faced him a small handful of times."

"But you know him..."

"I know my enemy, yes," I said quietly as I unlocked the last door that would lead us out to the balcony below the throne room. "But that's because he's predictable, and the feel of Power doesn't change from encounter to encounter. Little things like this, I can only guess at."

The lock gave with a click that sounded almost preternaturally loud, and I paused before opening it, turning to give Link a long look.

"This is it," I told him quietly. "Up the outer stair from here, we'll find both our missing princess, and the enemy of old. Ready?"

Fatigue was all but burned away within me, supplanted by the magic that I was using to ward off weariness. It was helped along by anticipation, excitement, adrenaline; the hope and prayer that soon this would be done, and I could be free.

Midna slid out of Link's shadow, taking full form in the darkened hallway, her face set.

"I'm ready," she said firmly.

After a breath of time, Link nodded.

"Me too."

I nodded as well, pushing aside extraneous emotions, and gave the door a push.

The wind at this level of the palace was rarely still, though the paltry breeze had nothing on the strength of the winds in Celestia. The rain might have halted, but the thunder still rumbled a threat, and in this distance, under clouds that glowed with golden twilight, lightning flickered in warning. Up here, the taste of anger was stronger than ever, and I shoved aside a thrill of eager anticipation. I could not afford to become careless now.

The throne room situated at the highest point of the castle had been a defensive measure added almost a century after Ganondorf's first failed coup; the stairs were good cover for a defending army, though it had been a very long time since anyone had ever thought to invade Hyrule from without. No, these days, all the danger seems to be internal...

I digress.

Up the stairs we went, and into a throne room that held no light from within. Instead, light was provided with flashes of lightning, and what was left of the mostly-blocked twilight behind us.

Being an open-aired room, it carried with it little scent from the bodies that lay near the pillars—soldiers all—or smoke and ash from the places where Ganondorf's magic had missed rebellious targets, leaving scorch marks on the white marble. The odd statue of the goddesses had been broken; a stone head the size of Link lay at the midpoint between throne and entrance, which gave both him and Midna pause.

I was already looking up, so I saw what they had both missed; Zelda's still body, colorless and lifeless, hung at the heart of the triangle. Link drew in a sharp breath and would have rushed forward, but Midan's arm flashed out a moment behind mine, and the double warning stilled him.

My gaze had traveled lower, to the tall Gerudo male sitting on the throne that was not his.

"Welcome to my castle,"Ganondorf said. The words were followed by a low, cruel chuckle. "Do you like my decorations?"

"Your taste is as appalling as ever," I said coolly.

The weight of his gaze was almost literal, and I could sense that he would like nothing better than to force me to kneel at his feet. But there was nothing he could do to me here and now, and... I got the sense that he didn't _truly_ recognize me, as strange as it sounds.

To be fair, if it hadn't been for the sense of the Triforce of Power, I probably would not have recognized him either; his time as a bodiless being had not necessarily improved him, though it had certainly _changed_ him. He was still recognizably Gerudo, with the dark mahogany skin, and red hair, the jewel of kingship crowning his forehead, but...

I can't explain it properly. I suppose I never shall.

"So... _you're_ Ganondorf," Midna said, ice in her voice.

He stood then, the low chuckle sounding once more, this time with a note of contempt in it. He held a sheathed blade in one hand that rippled with the power of magical construct, and I knew it to be a blade of Sage construct creation. No doubt the same one they had first attempted to execute him with before they sent him into the realm of the Twili. Link took up a protective stance near Midna, his hand reaching up to rest on the blue hilt of the Master Sword.

Midna was not impressed.

"I've been just _dying_ to meet you," she said, finishing with a feral grin.

"Your people have long amused me, Midna," Ganondorf said, taking firm steps forward to cut some of the ditance. "Defying the gods with such petty magics, only to be cast aside... how very pathetic. But it was that very thing that served me; their anguish and despair was my nourishment. The hatred of their circumstances bled across the void and awakened me... I drew deeply on that, and became strong again. It's a pity that with all their skill, they lacked true power."

He took a few casual steps to the side, then turned away from us in a show of arrogance to look up at Zelda's still form.

"The kind of absolute power given to those chosen by the gods..."

"You weren't chosen," I said irritably, breaking into the monologue. "If the gods chose anyone to wield Power, it certainly wouldn't be a dictator who couldn't see ten feet in front of his face. The _only_ reason you have that Triforce piece is because of _luck_."

He turned back, and that burning gaze fell upon me again. I met it with a challenging stare of my own, and I saw, for a brief moment, the flicker of furious recognition.

"You might be one of the chosen wielders of power, but I will risk everything to deny you!" Midna added, her own voice tight with righteous anger.

"So... shadow has been moved by light," and the fierce gaze turned to Midna instead. "How _amusing_. Very well, deny me then. Yes... try to deny me," and he looked upwards at Zelda, as the magic of a spell I did not recognize began to blur the room. "You and your little friends..."

Whether he was talking to her or me wasn't important. What was, was Midna recognized the spell, and took to the air, moving to protect Zelda with her own body. Unfortunately, it did no good; Ganondorf vanished, and the power of the spell shot harmlessly through Midna, into Zelda's empty body. To give her credit, Midna _did_ try. But Ganondorf had taken the perfect hostage; not Midna, nor Link, nor myself could harm the princess.

I didn't see the moment he woke in her body, but I felt it, and Midna was thrown back, landing hard, and rolling outside of the throne room in a dazed heap. Link ran for her, but I held my ground, my eyes on the possessed Zelda; there was no point to running. Midna would either be fine or she wouldn't, but the fight was now.

Sure enough, barriers came down over the room exits, and Zelda's body floated downwards, then landed delicately on the floor. At closer range, I could see that the gray of this Zelda had been replaced by Ganondorf's hard yellow, and there was a dark geometric pattern on either side of her neck, highlighted against the corpse-pale skin.

My mind whirled briefly in frenzy, then stilled as a sword—a delicate rapier, made specifically for the princess—was called into being. There was a way to win this. The fact that Zelda did not have enough magical power to prevent this was not anyone's fault; she had given that power up to save Midna's life, and aid our journey. And no matter _what_ he thought, Ganondorf had exploitable weaknesses.

We just had to figure out what they were.

"You three are faithless fools to challenge the power of the king of light and shadow," and there was an eerie duality, hearing both Zelda and Ganondorf's voices at once. "So you choose. And so you shall feel my wrath."

Zelda's feet left the ground then, her face contorted in a smirk that was pure Ganondorf as she headed out of range of blades.

"...what do we do?" Link whispered, moving to stand beside me once more.

"We wing it."

For what else _could_ we do?

Fortunately for my peace of mind, Ganondorf remained anything but subtle. Or even particularly creative. He devolved into three basic attacks; hitting us from below with a flare of power, coming at us in a lunge, sword first, or crafting up a ball of magic to throw at us. It was the ball of magic that jarred something loose in my brain from so long ago that I wasn't sure I had truly seen it, or was just imagining the memory. But either way, it was worth a shot.

"Hit it!" I called to Link, just as the ball was released. "Send it back to him!"

Link didn't stop to question me, he just obeyed. The shock on Zelda's face would have been comical if it had been Ganondorf's own, and he hung there for a moment, just out of reach as the lightning surged and crackled over his stolen form. Inwardly, a tiny part of me spared a wince for Zelda.

But it gave me the germ of an idea as well.

It was hard staying with Link as we dodged the attacks, but when the next ball of magic was launched, I was glad I had. I offered no explanation—there was no time. As Link's arm drew back to strike the magic back where it came from, I put a fingertip on the back of his neck, and touched the Light Medallion, sending a surge of power through me, into Link, and then into the sword. When it connected, the power was sent into the spell, and amplified.

Stunned was not the word for Ganondorf's reaction; he had underestimated the amount of damage that his stolen body could take, and he hung there, immobile as the light energy poured into him. His barriers collapsed as he did, and from behind us, Midna acted.

Using the Fused Shadows once more, she took on that 'monstrous' form, and made as if to attack. Ganondorf was in no position to defend, and the two hands wrapped around Zelda's body, pumping magic in its purest form thought to expel him from the princess. Zelda, when Midna released her, looked as though she was only sleeping, there on the throne.

The three of us shared a moment of relief, but the fight with Ganondorf was far from over. As Midna retook her natural form, Ganondorf's shadows recollected themselves at our back, taking the form not of a man, but a giant boar, with humanoid hands and feet. As with his human form, the beast bore a great wound across his belly that bled silvery blood, though it did not seem inclined towards stopping him from charging at us.

I did not want to move, not with Zelda more or less directly behind, and still well in the way of the fighting, but the decision was taken from me as the barriers reappeared... this time, the golden glow was softer, more pure, and I glanced at Midna out of the corner of my eye. She smirked at me, and I nodded a little.

We dodged almost as a unit, each of us in separate directions; I half-hoped Ganondorf would stun himself by running straight into the barrier, but he managed to turn himself in time, and took out the decorative pillars on the right side of the room, crashing through them and reducing them to rubble before vanishing in a flare of shadows.

This was a new trick, and we three came together quickly, scanning the room with care. Link saw the portals forming first, and nudged me. I watched, and then instinct prompted me to reach for my bow as the portals pinged from one spot to the next, never fully opening until the last possible moment.

If he thought we would be caught off guard, he was mistaken; the moment a portal snapped properly open, another memory, of ancient paintings in an equally ancient temple, warned me. My bow was up, and the arrow was loosed even as he came charging out, the gem on his forehead flaring to a blinding incandescence that forced me to look away. He howled as I scored a direct hit, and came sliding across the floor; Link pulled me out of the way before he turned and gave a fierce slash to Ganondorf's exposed belly.

The pain revived the boar-creature, and he lunged back to his feet, swinging his mighty tusks around to attack, but we all scrambled out of the way. Roaring his fury, he went into another charge, this time taking out the pillars on the _left_ side of the room.

This time, he descended from the ceiling, and I constantly thank all the gods that Midna saw him first. Being flattened by a giant man-boar would have been a _very_ embarrassing way to get out of the fight. She had no time to warn me; instead she just grabbed me with her magic and pulled me abruptly from harms way. Surprised by the move, the bow fell from my fingers, and was crushed to splinters beneath one of Ganondorf's hands.

I spared a moment to curse about the loss of my weapon, even as I nodded thanks to Midna for saving my from severe injury. She nodded back, grinning a little at the colorful phrases I tossed Ganondorf's way.

The fall had stunned Ganondorf, it seemed; either that or he had landed badly thanks to crushing my bow. Either way, his belly was exposed again, and once more Link swooped in to make the injury worse.

"Midna, how large can you make that hand of yours?" I asked as Link rolled out of the way of Ganondorf's retaliatory strike.

"...pretty large, why?"

"Because I have no bow, but he's not gone down yet. We need him to go down and _stay_ down. I think if you can get a good grip on him and flip him, Link and I can do the rest."

She grinned at me sharply, and nodded.

"Oh, I can _definitely_ do that."

She could too; the next time Ganondorf emerged from a portal, she was ready and waiting; her feet braced against a miniature barrier of her own. She forced him to a standstill, and threw him to the side, allowing both Link and myself to lunge in with weapons drawn to slice into the exposed injuries.

With a howl of pain and rage, Ganondorf raised up on his hind legs...and then toppled over sideways, laying still, and only _just_ seeming to breath. The silence fell, and Midna's barriers faded away as his body seemed to burn with black and gold flames.

He was not, arguably, dead. I could still feel the Triforce of Power, and was ready tor each out and take it when Midna began to glow golden from within, and glimmering motes of light separated from her; Zelda's soul left the healed Twili princess, and returning, at least, to its own body. Zelda's gray eyes opened, and she lifted her head slowly, then smiled warmly.

"Pr... princess," Midna stammered softly. "I... I..."

"Say nothing, Midna," Zelda said gently, rising to her feet. "Your heart and mine were as one, however briefly."

Zelda looked up briefly, her expression sad, then down again.

"Such suffering you have endured..."

Midna's face was a study in relief... but that relief was short-lived. From behind us, the sense of Power suddenly spiked with a sound much like a sizzling snap. I whirled, cursing myself mentally for allowing my attention to waver, and reached for one of the Medallions in my bandoleer; surely the Light Medallion could weaken him!

A giant, glowing head, a creating purely of magic and hatred, met my gaze, and despite myself, I took a step back. I had prepared for many things, but this... was not one of them. Link and Zelda also moved back, the hero protectively before the princess.

Midna, however, was the only one of us not momentarily cowed. She looked at this giant head, this mass of magic and malice... and called for the Fused Shadows once more. She turned, and smiled at us, confidence in her every pore. Link realized what she was about to do at the same moment I did; unlike me, he reached out, trying to stop her... and we were whisked away into the shadows.

When the darkness cleared, we were standing on the plains of Hyrule, just beyond the bounds of Kakariko. Zelda and Link looked around in bewilderment, but I turned my gaze towards the castle, reaching out and seeking the sense of Power, and the lesser magic of the Fused Shadow.

The explosion that rocked the land, and the castle was more than enough for me to know that Midna had not managed to defeat Ganondorf. His appearance moments later, sitting atop a black horse, only confirmed this. He rubbed in his victory by holding aloft the crown Midna had always worn... and crumbling it in his hands.

"No..." Link whispered, agony in his voice. "No, no, no!"

The wind did not carry Ganondorf's laughter to us, for which I was glad; an aching nunbness spread through me, composed of too many emotions at once to be felt properly. He wheeled his horse expertly, and summoned the spirits of the dead to ride with him.

I heard Link shift in preparation to fight beside me, and closed my eyes.

Enough. Was. Enough.

Zelda and I spoke in unison. If we had planned it, it could not have been a more perfect moment.

"Spirits of the light!" we called. "Wielders of the great power that shines far and wide upon the lands of our world... In this hour of need, grant us the light to banish evil!"

Time slowed. Stilled. In a very real sense, the three of us vanished as my spirits pulled us into a pocket of time and space to the side. The light came easily here, to the call of those who needed it most, and in a flash, golden arrows appeared, and a bow to match. I passed them both to Zelda, who did not question my decision.

"We are safe for the moment," I said briskly, putting one hand on Link's shoulder, and one on Zelda's. "But only for the moment. Speak quickly, before the spell runs its course."

Zelda nodded, and the grief in her eyes dimmed into respect, and relief as she looked to Link.

"Link," she said gently. "Chosen hero. Please... lend us the last of your power."

She bowed to him, as no ruler is ever meant to bow to a person below them. I had to smile as Link blinked, blushed a little, then shyly offered her his hand instead. Zelda lifted her head, then smiled softly again, and put her hand into his.

I pulled on the magic,hard, and summoned up Epona,and Windchaser.

"On," I urged them. "Link, the Arrows of Light will stun Ganondorf, but only for a short time. Keep Zelda close enough to hit him, and try to knock him from his horse if you can."

"What about you?" he asked, even as he climbed up and I boosted Zelda into place behind him.

"My time in this fight is done, but I can keep the ghosts off your back," I replied, hauling myself into the saddle as well. "You've got this Hero. Win."

Even as the temporary safety collapsed, and we were returned to the world, I saw him nod firmly, grief set aside for the battle that yet lay ahead. When he saw Ganondorf, he charged, and Zelda held on tightly, an arrow already glowing on the string of the bow. Ganondorf charged as well, and his ghostly host followed behind. The spirits were immune to normal weapons, but I had a weapon that was anything _but_ normal.

I took the Light Medallion in hand, and banished the spirits one by one as we gave chase, riding through them to dispel the forms that the King of Evil had summoned up. It was not comfortable, but it was all I could do to ensure their safety. After what felt like hours, but was logically only a few minutes, I turned just in time to watch Link pull a trick that I hadn't even considered; instead of throwing his weight against Ganondorf to throw them both from the saddle, he leaned over and cut the girth.

The abrupt shift was too much for the former Gerudo king who hadn't had a body or ridden a horse in only Nayru knows how long. His horse went one way, and Ganondorf went another thrown heavily to the ground. Windchaser and I came to a stop beside Epona, and the three of us watched with wary eyes.

Ganondorf slowly rose to his feet in the cloud of dust his landing had raised; he was injured now, one arm hanging awkwardly, but he still held the sheathed Sages Sword, and still had the air of a man who was certain he would win against all odd.

Instead of attacking, he laughed. I dismounted, not because I was ready to fight, but because if I received the chance I hoped for, it would be better to be off the horse than on her. Link followed suit; only Zelda remained on Epona and I passed her the headstall reins for Windchaser as well—if all went well, I didn't want to have to _walk_ back to the palace.

"An impressive blade," Ganondorf sneered, cold eyes locked onto Link. "But nothing more."

"Oh, he feels this, all right,"I murmured as I stepped up to Link's shoulder. "Remember, it is the Blade of Evils' Bane. You can do this, Link."

He nodded without taking his gaze from Ganondorf and stepped forward, Master Sword at the ready.

"Would you hear my desire?" Ganondorf asked mockingly. "To take this foul blade," and finally he unsheathed the Sages sword, contemptuously throwing the sheathe aside, "and use it to bblot out the light forever!"

A barrier sprang up as he approached Link; a wall too high for Zelda or I to breach, but I had been prepared for this. The fight between Ganondorf and Link has _always_ been between only them. Zelda and I, in this we were merely spectators.

For all Ganondorf stood at close to seven feet in height, it was Link who dominated the battle from the word go. When their swords locked, Link was the one who pushed back with the strength to knock the former Gerudo king to his knees, and the speed to attack in those unguarded moments. Though superficial at first, the injuries began to pile up.

A forearm guard fell off into the dirt with a heavy clank as the sharpness of the Master Sword sliced through the leather straps.

The cloak became so much useless cloth, shredding so badly that Ganondorf himself cut it free with an angry growl.

The ground became spattered with blood as Link found a tiny opening and exploited it, just as he had been trained.

Link took a kicked to the chest, but even as he tumbled backwards, the sword licked out, and Ganondorf let out a howl of furious pain as it tore through cloth and flesh both, dropping him to his knees. The hero flipped immediately back to his feet, and took extreme advantage of that moment; in a swift move, he had lunged in and thrust the Master Sword through the glowing silver scar that bisected Ganondorf's chest.

His mouth opened in a silent scream, and I could _feel_ the rage that washed out like a hammer blow. Link jumped back, but left the blade deeply embedded in Ganondorf's body, allowing it to do the work it was meant to do; kill evil beings.

Somehow, despite this, Ganondorf managed to find the strength to get to his feet, though he had little strength for anything else; his barrier had collapsed, and I silently crept up on his blind side, ready to act.

"Don't... think this ends... here," he ground out. "The history... of light and shadow... will be written in... _blood_."

I could sense the strength that was waning, and closed my eyes, summoning the spell I had prepared in advance for this day many decades before. As he called for the power of his Triforce piece, I I reached for it, and cast out... let's call it a net. A net meant to attract and hold strong pieces of power, whether their wielders wanted that or not.

If it had worked the way it was supposed to, I would now be free of my mandate.

I don't know what went wrong. I felt, for a moment, as though it had caught; the boundless power of the Triforce piece sang in my mind, whispering to me of what I could do once I had it. The things I could create, the rights I could wrong, the ways I could _fix_ my mistakes.

I pulled... and something resisted me. It pulled back, already accustomed to the Power I was trying to take, and not willing in the slightest to give it up. Nor more was I, and I thought, in a battle of wills, I would come out the victor.

The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back with both Zelda and Link peering at me in panicked concern, my head ringing like I'd stuck it in a church bell.

"Are you okay?!" Link asked frantically, his face pale with fear.

His voice came to me as though I was underwater, and I lifted a hand weakly, trying to wave away the concern. I knew this feeling, unpleasant as it was.

"Backlash," I said thickly."I'll... be fine. Just give me a moment..."

I sensed more than saw Zelda's sigh of relief, and I fully intended to take that moment until I realized that I was no longer sensing the Triforce of Power. I jackknifed into a sitting position, ringing head or not, then followed by flinging myself to my feet.

Not the wisest of moves, but I needed to see.

Ganondorf stood there still, the Master Sword sticking out of his chest like some grotesque nail in a coffin. He was very clearly dead.

Link caught me before I could fall, and looped one of my arms over his shoulders as I struggled to deal with the emotions rising within.

Failure. Again, failure. My spell had not worked. My plan had not worked, and now the Triforce of Power was gone with Ganondorf's soul, to wherever it would reside until he was reborn, and the cycle was begun anew.

I wanted to scream. I wanted ti weep and wail,and rail against the injustices of it all. I wanted to destroy something. I wanted to break Ganondorf's body until there was nothing left to it.

I did none of these things. I allowed Link to support me over to Zelda, who helped me to sit again. I didn't put up a protest when he curled my fingers once more around the Light Medallion and the physical affects of the backlash receded rapidly.

I might well have remained in a fog of furious grief, however, had it not been for one person.

We had fought for long hours, it seemed, though we had been caught on the edges of twilight. In truth, it was dawn that was now breaking through the clouds that were fading with the banishment of Ganondorf's evil.

 _Our mother_ , came the whisper. _Though you grieve, there is yet one thing that can be done_.

Slowly, I lifted my head.

 _What can be done?_ I asked slowly, feeling as though I had to push the words out through mud.

 _Midna is not dead._

It took a second, but when that information connected, I was on my feet in a second, and running for the top to the hill in the next moment; the power of the spirits gathered there, around what was left of the fused shadow. Their brief manifestation, and even briefer use of power was all I needed to know.

Link was only a few steps behind me, and Zelda behind him. They didn't know why I was running, but they both knew me well enough to understand that I don't run for small things.

The form that greeted us, as dawn broke fully over the land and bathed it in a soft golden light, was not the little imp we had come to know and love. Midna unfolded to her true height, a mature adult at long last, and turned to face us with a warm smile.

"What?" she asked, her voice briefly self-conscious. "Say something! Or," and the warm smile turned sly and mischievous, "am I so beautiful now that you've no words left?"

I could, I decided, be upset with myself later. In that moment, at least _one_ thing had gone just as it was supposed to.


	30. Twenty-nine

Twenty-nine

We did not return to the desert that day. Instead, we returned to the palace, and began the grim work of cleaning up the mess Ganondorf's depravities had made. What nobility that was left had to be informed, summoned, and their tithes called in to restore the palace and the lands around to proper working order.

And then, unsurprisingly, there was a celebration. People danced in the streets, sang songs of praise and joy, and were not at all afraid of Midna's restored form. Some even painted green or silver lines on their skin, trying to emulate her, something she found both bizarre and amusing.

Midna as her true self was not actually so different as Midna in her imp form. She had more power, to be certain, but she was still the princess I had seen grown and mature over the span that was now, almost a full year.

It didn't surprise me when she left one of the fetes and came to find me. I had no patience for parties where I was expected to play word politics, nor one where people would be whispering the title that I still did not feel I deserved.

"Hiding?" she asked playfully as she stepped into the library.

"Naturally," I replied, putting the book I was reading down. "What about you?"

"I was tired of being stared at..."

"Fair enough."

She perched on the edge of my desk, and turned her gaze to the numerous bookshelves.

"What do we do now?" she asked after a long moment, the playful note vanishing from her voice.

"Well, you have to go home eventually," I replied, leaning back in my chair to study her. She seemed stronger now, but also more... sad. "Are you ready to do that, yet?"

"No, but... I suspect I'll never _really_ be ready to say goodbye."

I grimaced a little, and looked down at the desk.

"We have to do it," she continued, though her tone of voice was soft, sad. "I know that. And I know that you do as well, even if you don't want to."

"I really don't, I admitted tiredly. "There's nothing for me to fix, and that makes me happy, but..."

Her hand rested over one of mine, and she smiled in pained understanding.

"It'll be hard for him to accept," Midna murmured.

"Yes," I agreed. "And he probably won't feel as though he can trust me after I do what must be done."

"...then I'll do it."

I startled, and looked up at her. Her face was set in determined lines, resolute despite the pain that this would bring to all of us.

"You... but..."

"You said I can," she interrupted. "And you don't deserve to suffer any longer for what you did. You may not agree, Raiha, but your mistake was the greatest gift in the end; for without it, we could never have met."

It hurt in a different way, to be so completely forgiven for what I had done after so long. It was a little like a septic wound had been lanced, finally, and the negative feelings could fade away. It would take time,I knew, but her forgiveness has allowed me to start the process of forgiving myself.

I still have not done this fully... but I am trying.

I bit back the tears that threatened, and simply held her hand for a moment.

"I am very glad to have met you as well," I finally said. "And I know I will miss you terribly, but... you're right. It has to be done. Are you sure you can do it?"

"Yes," she said firmly.

"Then..." I closed my eyes for a moment, and let out a slow breath, calling to Lanayru for the spell. The diagram popped into my head, and I drew it quickly in silver light in midair. "Here. This is the spell."

It was deceptively simple, and easy enough for her to learn. I am not sure how she committed it to memory, but I knew when she did, for the light vanished as though it had never been.

"We should go soon," she said after a long moment. "Before my resolve fails, and I decide to stay for another month."

"You want to suffer _more_ celebrations?" I asked dryly, knowing as she did that we needed a moment of levity to ease the grief we were both feeling. "Because that's all that's going to be happening, at least until the nobles remember that their estates need tending."

She made a face at me.

"How are you going to get back without teleportation?" she asked.

"I might not be able to portal-hop the way you can, but I can create a temporary one, in Lanayru's cavern," I replied, getting to my feet and walking around the desk to stand beside her. "It should get us back here."

"Then that's all that needs to be done."

"Yes." I paused, and glanced at her. "When?"

She looked down at her lap for a moment, hands clenching briefly, then let out a slow breath.

"Tomorrow," she said finally. "Tomorrow at sunset."

"...You already told them, didn't you?"

Midna glanced up, and gave me a fleeting, pained smile.

"Link doesn't seem to mind so much, but I think Zelda knows..." she admitted.

"She would. Like you, she's a ruler, and like me, she knows that dangerous magics... can't be allowed to remain, no matter how benign the intent behind the was." I sighed a little, then offered her my arm. "Since this is going to be your last night here, why don't we sneak on out of this frippy nonsense, and go find something more... _fun_ to do."

She glanced sidelong at me, then grinned, and looped her arm through mine.

"Let's!"

We snuck out under the cover of Midna's shadows, and just... walked under the stars in Hyrule field. We said nothing. No offers of communication were made, though I was sorely tempted; logically, I know that if I could see her, I would want to talk to her, and if I spoke to her, I would want to visit. I _still_ want to visit, but I am comforted by the fact that this break is clean, and I know that she must miss us as well.

When dawn arrived, we returned to the palace to rest; at midday, I mind-spoke to Lanayru, and we set up the spell that would bring Link, Zelda, and myself safely out of the desert. Link found me in the early afternoon, having tracked me out to the armory where I was checking over the new bows and trying to decide which one would suit me best.

"Does she really have to go?"

"She's a ruler, Link," I replied, lifting down a bow, then rejecting it for being too light. "She has to go back to her people. She's been away for a long time as it is, you know, and longer still just trying to help us clean up our mess."

He sighed a little, and I could practically see the unhappiness.

"You have to go back soon as well," I pointed out. "With the danger dealt with, and a cart at Kakariko, the children need an escort to return to Ordon."

"...Malo's not going to be happy about that," he muttered.

"Malo is still a child, enterprising or not," I replied dryly. "He needs to be home with his mother and father."

"What about you?" he asked. "Will you... come with us?"

"For a time," I shrugged lightly, and finally found one that felt right. I strung it, and did a few test draws to see how it felt. "You still need to return the Master Sword. After that... I'll go where the wind takes me."

"But... you'll visit. Right?"

"Yes, puppy, I'll visit. I'll even let you show me around your village. But I have other things to do, and I've been neglecting them..."

It wasn't entirely a lie; I _did_ have plenty of duties that I typically neglected in terms of nobility, and there was always one project or another that I could oversee or help out in, no matter where I went.

"Will you write?"

I made an exasperated sound and turned to face him finally.

"I,"I said tartly, "am a terrible letter writer, but because you asked _so_ persuasively, yes, I will write. Now, what is _really_ bothering you?"

"I just..." he shifted a little, and looked down at his feet. "I really like you. And I don't want you to just... vanish."

I sighed a little, and slung the bow over one shoulder, then crossed the room to put my hands on his shoulders.

"Puppy, even if I never see you again in this lifetime, believe me, there will be others. And you _will_ see me again, though probably not as often as you'd like. You are my friend, and I care very deeply for you, but it is time to return to your life. And that life is whatever you make of it, with, or without me. Okay?"

He bit his lower lip, then sighed and nodded... and abruptly hugged me. It made my heart ache, but I hugged him in reply, and then briskly shooed him out of the armory so that he wouldn't see me weep.

Sunset arrived all too soon, and Midna teleported the four of us to the Mirror Chamber for the last time. Where I kept my face neutral to hide the pain that was coming, Midna wore her small, sly smile, undoubtedly doing just the same.

"Well... I guess this is farewell, huh?" Midna said after a moment as we gathered before the open portal. "As we know, light and shadow cannot mix. But..." she looked at Zelda, her eyes soft, "remember that there is another world attached to this one."

"Shadow and light are two sides of the same coin," Zelda countered, a soft smile of her own upon her face. "One cannot exist without the other."

I had to smile then, just slightly. Trust Zelda to come up with something so perfectly true in the moment.

"I think I know why the mirror was left in this world," the Hylian princess continued. "It was the design of the goddesses that we should meet. At least... that is what I believe."

Midna and I exchanged _heavily_ sardonic looks, but I was not inclined to correct her. The fewer people who knew I created the mirror, the better, in my opinion.

"...Your words are kind, and your heart is true," Midna said after a long moment. "If all in Hyrule were like you... Well, you'll do all right."

She looked to Zelda, then to Link... and finally to me, before turning to walk to the silver steps. At the foot of them she paused, and turned back.

"Thank you," she said simply. "And the princess speaks truly; as long as the mirror is around, we could meet again..."

Link smiled a little, and I bowed my head slightly, feeling my heart constrict and knowing that I could not hide it from them.

"Link..." Midna's voice was soft. Sad. I felt rather than saw the spell build, and lifted my head to see the tear that she shed to give it a physical weight. "I..."

The tear floated from her face, gleaming a soft silver in the deepening twilight. She touched it lightly, then gave it a firm push, sending it straight for the mirror.

"See you later..."

He began to suspect then, as the tear drifted to the mirror... but it wasn't until is sank in, and the cracks began appearing that he fully understood what Midna had chosen. His breath caught in his throat he he turned and watched her dart up the stairs, and I watched, my vision swimming with the tears I tried to deny.

She turned. She smiled. She blew a kiss... and then vanished into the portal. Seconds later, the mirror shattered into dust and fragments... and one mistake, at least, was corrected.

Link turned to me, and I could not meet his eyes.

"Why?" he asked, his voice filled with pain.

"Because it had to be done," I replied softly. "And she decided to do it." I pressed my lips tightly together for a moment, then made myself face him. "If she hadn't, it was my duty to do so. My mistake to correct. She chose to take that burden from me, and it was her last act of generosity. It is something she had the bravery to do, and I can never repay her enough for it."

He looked stunned, and I could see the betrayal in his eyes. There was nothing else to be done, or said, so I brought us back to Hylian soil.

"Don't forget to put the Master Sword back, Link," I said softly. "Her job is now done."

He just made a faint sound that I decided was agreement, and left the cavern. Zelda stayed, and laid a hand on my arm.

"Will you be all right?" she asked softly.

"I'll hate myself for a while," I admitted quietly. "And I know he'll resent me no matter what I say. But inevitably, life will return to normal. All life."

Very gently, Zelda hugged me, then made her way out of the cavern to the small squad of guards that were waiting in the early evening air.

And thus, the tale ends. In the decade since, I have made unpleasant discoveries about the truth of the Triforce, from the records of the Sheikah that I received from Impaz. I am no longer at all certain that my mandate will _ever_ come to an end, for how could I get that evil being to trust me enough to pass guardianship of the Triforce of Power?

I do not know what to do any longer... But I cannot allow myself to give in to the self-loathing or the despair, though the memories pain and infuriate me still. There must be a way... and I will find it. Someday, I will fix what has been broken.


	31. Epilogue

Epilogue

The four of them sat around the table as Zelda finished the last line, feeling various degrees of stunned.

"...wow," Link finally said.

"I believe, my friend that that is an understatement," Sheik replied, shaking his head slowly.

Ganon just nodded, feeling rather like he'd been kicked in the chest several times.

"Raiha is very strong," Zelda said softly. "I don't know that I could have continued on after that discovery. But she did."

"...Gerudo certainly do sort of corner the market on stubborn," Ganon said after a long moment. "And she's that special, _annoying_ sort of stubborn when she sets her mind to it."

All three of the others nodded in agreement; while Raiha could be amazingly flexible, certain things had her dig in with her heels like no one's business. And when she dug in, there was not a one of them that could convince her to move. Sometimes, it was useful... sometimes it was just a trial.

"What should we do now?" Sheik asked.

"We should return the journals to their resting place, and, as she herself said, continue on with life," Zelda replied. "Does this truly change what we know of her? Of ourselves?"

Ganon glanced away briefly, then jolted a little as he felt Link's hand wrap around his. The blond Hero smiled encouragingly at the male Gerudo, who managed a wan smile in return. It might not have shaken any of them, but he had hints of vague memories that he knew would plague his dreams in the weeks to come.

"We keep going," Zelda repeated gently, her expression soft as she glanced at Ganon. "And we thank the grace of the goddesses that she is free to remain with us now."

* * *

She had expected Link to find her first, as he had after the Ocarina Tale, but it was Ganon who had come, and what he sought... Well, Raiha couldn't be wholly sure what he was looking for, but it was entertaining to watch him carefully rock a fussing Bel, trying to coax the baby into falling asleep.

It was rare that they shared quiet moment together during the day. Usually if they were together during the day, they were sparring to impress new and old recruits, or sniping back and forth with words in a manner that still could confuse Link as to their affections.

It was... nice, she decided. Nice to see him trying to calm his fussy son, and nice to feel comfortable and even safe in his presence. It had taken them a very long time to reach this point... at least, considering how mortals measured time.

The thought made her smile a little as she absently smoothed some of Naila's hair. The calmer child was no more inclined to sleep than her brother, but her blue eyes were watchful and solemn. Raiha's smile shifted a little, gentling as she focused more on her first daughter.

Ganon glanced over, and found his attention caught by the expression he hadn't seen before. It wasn't that it looked _wrong_ on her, but it was so different from what he was used to that he had to stare. How, he wondered, had they all gotten this lucky? Hell, how had _he?_

"Green for your thoughts."

He twitched as she spoke, her voice heavy with amusement, and shifted a little, reminded belatedly of the baby boy he held in his arms. Bel had quieted some, but those golden eyes looked more rebellious than sleepy.

"Just... the difference..." he said cautiously after a moment.

"Of?"

"You."

She glanced up then, a wry smile on her face.

"Specifics?"

It startled a chuckle out of him, and he shifted slightly again, very carefully rubbing the belly of his son. He'd seen her do that to soothe him before, so perhaps it would help now.

"Hard to explain," Ganon admitted. "Just... You _are_ different, you know."

"Of course I am. Nothing stays the same forever. That wold be _boring_."

"And Din forbid life with you is ever that," he said dryly.

She grinned at him, a brief flash of mischief that acknowledged and accepted the words, and for just a brief moment, he thought he could see how the world would have changed if he'd met her as a small child, unafraid to speak her mind, and tell even a king when he was wrong.

"Well, I have four different people to help keep me on my toes," she said lightly, "and of course, the babies. Plus the children I'm training in the library and the archives. So there's plenty for me to take care of, while time winds down naturally."

He nodded a little, and glanced down at Bel, whose eyes were starting to close, finally. For a few minutes, he focused on the baby, and then when she rose to put Naila in the sleeping basket, he glanced up again to watch.

"...you're a strong person," he said quietly.

Raiha went still—he'd surprised her—then looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"What brought that on?" she asked, stepping over to check on Bel.

"Just... you never gave up," he said after a moment, watching her as she watched the baby. "You could have given in to despair, and self-loathing, but... But you never did. You kept going, kept... kept _fighting_."

He struggled for a minute as Raiha settled comfortably onto her long couch, waiting for him to find the words he was looking for.

"How did you do it?"

"Honestly?" she chuckled wryly, a self-depreciating smile on her face. "I wallowed in misery and self-pity for a while after every failure. I let myself feel these things, the sting of them, the weight of them... and then as time passed, they became less, and I was able to think outside myself again. The failure isn't in falling down, Gan, it's in giving up. Now, I could be all noble and tell you that I never gave up because I wanted to save Hyrule, and return all life and magic to her, but..."

Her smile turned wry, even as he snorted a little.

"While that desire was a strong part of it, the thing I never let goof, the hope that kept me trying again and again, was the desire to simply return my life to a normal standing. To be mortal, and live, or to simply... let go, and know nothing more."

He nodded slowly.

"But I'm not the only strong person in this room right now," she said, and he startled a little, giving her a surprised look. "My challenges were never yours, but still you stand here. You never gave up fighting the shade that owned your body. You could have been broken, you could have lost yourself in the eternity of it... You could have given in and joined forces with the shade, if that was what you'd truly wanted. But you didn't."

"I didn't do much," he objected.

"Didn't you? You not only managed to hold onto your sense of self, despite centuries of control and abuse, you managed to keep the shade blinded to some of what was going on. You helped, even when it didn't seem like it was worth it, even when you remained bound to the shade. You never gave up, any more than I did."

It was _weird_ to hear what sounded like praise coming from her, and he found himself looking away, at the haphazard stack of books on the nearest shelf.

"Yes, well..." he muttered.

She snickered a little at him.

"We are two of a kind," she said wryly. "Damaged, a bit warped with all we've been through, and incapable of having a full night's worth of sleep, but we are also here. And each of them has their own strengths, too. We are, all of us, strong. That's what makes us work so well as a unit."

He nodded slowly, then sighed a little.

"Did you ever... fully forgive yourself for the mirror?"

She blinked, then burst out laughing,though she kept her voice low to avoid waking the sleeping twins. It was the sort of laugh that was painful, and mocking, but it wasn't mocking _him_ , it was self-mockery... and it admittedly pained him to hear.

"No," she finally managed, once the laughter had wound down. "I don't think I ever will. But I do not regret it as much as I used to."

"Have you ever-"

"No," she interrupted. "Midna made the right choice. We needed the clean break, and she was the one brave enough to do it. I feel guilty to have allowed her to take that burden from me, but I am also grateful that she did. I don't know that I could have."

There wasn't much to be said to that, so instead, Ganon moved to sit with her on the couch, and curled an arm around her. The silent softness filled the room once more, and they both reveled in the comfort of it, without needing to say a single word.

* * *

"It was quite the tale," Zelda said as they walked through the garden together, Tetra darting ahead to look at the blooming flowers and chasing bugs. "You never cease to amaze me."

"Yes, well," Raiha waved a hand lightly, then tickled Bel, whom she was carrying in the other. He gurgled and laughed, his voice joining the birdsong, and Tetra's own delighted voice. "It is, I admit, an impressive story, even without my interference."

"It's strange to think that the people could be as spirits under that blanket of power," the queen said, shifting Naila from one arm to the other so that she could lightly touch Raiha's shoulder. "Or that you yourself could shapeshift. Can you still?"

"If I wanted to, I suppose I could," Raiha shrugged a little. "But I would probably muck it up the first few times, considering how long it's been. If I were to try and revive it, I should have done it a decade ago." After a moment she snickered. "That certainly would have given Gan pause."

"I'd think such a skill would give _anyone_ pause."

Raiha's grin widened slightly.

"True enough. From the sound of it, you've got a good grasp on Gelda now, though. Gan says you only needed help a couple of times."

Zelda nodded, feeling a bit pleased.

"You didn't write the story, did you?" she asked.

"Noooo," Raiha shook her head wryly. "I spoke it. I ruined a couple of books before I hit on the spell, since I kept crossing things out and ripping out entire pages when I was dissatisfied. By speaking the story instead of writing it, and by making it so that I _had_ to do it all in one go, I was able to finish, and then I could turn my attention to.. well... forgetting the worst of it."

"That explains why some of the conjectures were a bit... odd at times."

The redhead snorted a little.

"Probably."

"Did you ever decide what to do with the books from the Temple that your old master stored?"

"...books?" Raiha's expression turned puzzled for a moment, then her eyes widened. "I forgot all about those! I'll have to get them soon..."

"Mama, Mommy, look at what I did!" Tetra exclaimed, rushing up and interrupting their conversation.

Obligingly, both women turned to the young girl, who had a fistful of flowers. Most of them looked to have been dead or dying, but in Tetra's grip, they glowed with renewed life and health.

"... _Very_ soon," Raiha said dryly.

Zelda could only nod in agreement, and smile with pride at her daughter's natural skill.

* * *

"I think I understand you a bit _less_ now than I did when you recommended the books to me," Sheik said, sounding just a bit exasperated.

Raiha grinned a little at him as she looked up from her sorting.

"Good. It'll keep you on your toes, and remind you that your dreams are only that."

"Thanks ever so much for the reminder, my lady, and for eternally dashing my hopes," he replied dryly.

"Dashed hopes build character. Calm down."

Sheik took in a breath, and let it out, then raked his hand briefly through his hair. He _was_ upset, but it was not her fault, and taking it out on her would hardly endear him to her. True, she was already, but it still was so new that he worried it might wear away at any time.

"I apologize," he said after a moment. "You did not deserve that."

"So, who or what is upsetting you?"

He grimaced a little, and joined her in the careful sorting, glancing at the twins in their shielded pram. Bel had his hands on a crinkling toy that he was delightedly squishing in his hands, why Naila had her favorite stuffed bunny that she was patting with enthusiasm. The baby babble was difficult to make sense of, but the sight of them happy, and Raiha relaxed, helped him to calm down too.

"What do you do when you feel you are pulled in too many directions at once?" he finally asked.

"I prioritize. What's the most important thing I ought to be doing, as opposed to what's the thing I want to do, but don't necessarily _need_ to do. Granted, the list doesn't always run in that manner, but typically... Why?"

"I have received concerning news from home. My sister, it seems, is ill."

Raiha paused in her sorting and sat back to give him a thoughtful look.

"How ill?"

"She herself wrote the letter," he smiled a little wryly, "so I can only assume that the prognosis is good. Yet..."

"You want to go and see for yourself?"

"...yes. After our father's passing, my sister and I have always been close."

"Then you should go," she said simply.

"But... there is so much to do here," he replied, looking down at the book in his hands, then carefully setting it to the side. "The sorting of the library, the work in the archives, the-"

She reached over and put a finger to his lips, then tiled his chin up so that he was looking at her.

"You should go," she repeated firmly. "Family is important, and both the work, and we, will still be here. Besides," and Raiha smiled wryly, with just a hint of sadness, "you look like you need some time to adjust to what you've learned. So go home. See your sister, and speak with her. Walk the lands that are most familiar to her, and decide what path it is that you truly wish to take."

"I know what path I want to take," he said, his hand hesitantly coming up to catch hers. "I have never been one to take the easier route."

Raiha chuckled a little, and squeezed his hand lightly.

"Still, go home and see your sister. She'll probably _like_ hearing all the dirty castle rumors you've been caught up in~."

Sheik flushed a little, and rubbed his free hand across his nose,then pointedly returned to the sorting. With a grin that was both fond and teasing, Raiha did as well.

* * *

"Did he ever forgive you?"

Raiha blinked, glancing up from her paperwork as Link put a snack tray down on the low table in her office.

"Hmm?"

"The... past me," he said, flopping down to sit near Naila and Bel, who were both starting to figure out how to roll onto their bellies. "For what happened with Midna..."

"Oh."

Raiha set the papers aside, and went to get a tiny cake, nodding a little.

"Eventually, yes. Once he grew up a little more, and Ilia talked him around. While she didn't have the full picture of what happened, she was remarkably eloquent with words."

Link smiled a little shyly, then waved Bel's large, jingling ball over the boy's head. The baby squealed and kicked, reaching for the noisemaker.

"If you rile him up with that, _you_ get to take him out where it won't bother anyone," she mock-threatened.

"Okay~"

Raiha laughed softly, shaking her head.

"Sheik says he's going home for a few weeks," Link said after a minute, still jingling the ball.

"Mmhm. He's worried about his sister. Did you want to go see your family too?"

"Well.. kind of?" he admitted sheepishly. "The twins are going to have their tenth birthday soon, and it seemed like it might be nice to drop by for a few days and see how everything's going."

"It probably would," she agreed. "What's stopping you?"

Now he ducked his head, blushing a little, then jumped as Naila's little fist reached out and banged his knee. Quickly, he lifted her bunny over her head, and made it hop around with the jingling of the ball. Both twins laughed, and Raiha smiled fondly to see him playing with them.

"I... do you want to come with?"

She blinked in surprise, cocking her head slightly.

"It's just... it's been a while since you were in Kakariko, and I know my parents would like to meet the twins, even if they don't entirely understand why none of us have made any permanent commitment, and..." He stopped, then put down the jingling ball to rub the back of his neck. "I'm babbling."

"Yes, but it's cute," Raiha chuckled a little. "Gan is going to kick up a fuss when he realizes he can't come. He's got too much to do in the next few weeks to take a break."

"Yeah, but... maybe him and Zelda could spend time together?"

"In the non-official capacity, yes," she grinned a little. "Well, I don't see why not. Your family is our family too, complaints about record keeping aside."

Link grinned a little, then yelped as Bel actually reached out and smacked the neglected ball, hitting it with enough energy to send it jingling across the room. Raiha snickered a little, and picked up a sandwich from the tray.

"Really now, you got him all excited, so I guess, you'll just have to stick around and play with the babies until they're ready for naptime."

Link paused. Grinned a little, then nodded.

"Okay!"


End file.
